BUG: UnlodCtr.exe May Fail with Event ID 3002 on Windows 2000 (268486)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API), when used with:
    • the operating system: Microsoft Windows 2000
This article was previously published under Q268486

SYMPTOMS

On Windows 2000, UnlodCtr.exe may fail after you use RegEdt32.exe to view certain performance library registry data. This failure results in the following error message:
The performance counter explain text string value in the registry is
incorrectly formatted. The last valid index value is DWORD 0 in the
Record Data.
This error, event ID 3002, is logged in the application event log. The source of the event is LoadPerf.

CAUSE

If you use RegEdt32.exe to edit a value of type REG_MULTI_SZ that has more than 1,024 characters in a single string, it splits the string into multiple strings of 1,024 characters or less. In this case, a NULL character is embedded between the strings. Because the performance counter Help string is modified, error code 1010 (ERROR_BADKEY) results when you attempt to unload the performance counter text strings through a call to the UnloadPerfCounterTextStrings API. In response to this error, UnlodCtr.exe logs the event.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

The following performance library registry key contains a value called Help of type REG_MULTI_SZ:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT
\CurrentVersion\Perflib\009

(In this key name, 009 represents the language identifier for U.S. English.)

On Windows 2000, the Help string for counter 241 has more than 1,024 characters. If you use RegEdt32.exe to view the Help value within the key listed above and then click OK to close the Multi-String Editor dialog box, a NULL character will be embedded within the Help string for counter 241.

RegEdt32.exe generates the embedded NULL character only if you click OK to close the Multi-String Editor dialog box. To avoid this, click Cancel to close the dialog box when you view the Help value on Windows 2000.

This problem does not occur on Windows NT 4.0 because the Help string for each counter is less than 1,024 characters.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:10/22/2003
Keywords:kbAPI kbbug kbKernBase kbpending kbPerfMon KB268486
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