Com Surrogate failure

System is a nice working Windows7x64 on a Samsung RF711 notebook - until yesterday with TI2012 Build 7133.
Today I installed the new TI2013 Build-Nr.5551, German - and had to wait a long time to get open "computer" - and then the failure message Com Surrogate came permanently when trying to open files. See attachment.
After deinstallation and reinstall of TI2012 everything is working fine again.
Not nice to have paid for trouble......
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Okay, I used ShellExView (http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html) to disable a few True Image shell extensions, and all the problems went away. This is a work-around until they fix the problem.
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@both posters.
Did you have a previous version of True Image installed that you had integrated into Windows?
I am wondering if deintegration didn't happen correctly on uninstall or overwrite of a previous version.
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On a clear disk you can seek forever

Krabbe,
This is the 2013 forum. I understand your problem is with 2012.

I had 2012, which I uninstalled before installing 2013.
Pat, krabbe said that the problem is in 2013 and that it went away when he downgraded back to 2012.
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Got it. Thanks for pointing this out.
I think you need to use the cleanup tool for 2012 after having uninstall 2012, then reboot. Install 2013 in a clean boot environment using msconfig.
I have had no problems installing 2013 on clean systems virtual and physical.

Before I read your post I already ran the 2013 cleanup utility to completely remove True Image 2013 and Disk Director 11. After installing both again, everything seems okay (other than having to recreate my backup settings). It's still a bug since the uninstaller is supposed to take care of stuff like this, but I'll let it slide. Thanks.
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The 2013 uninstaller is far better than the 2012 uninstaller, but only with 2013 not in removing remnants of 2012.
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On a clear disk you can seek forever

>Did you have a previous version of True Image installed that you had integrated into Windows?
I am wondering if deintegration didn't happen correctly on uninstall or overwrite of a previous version<
Yes - since I read that I can install over a previous version on Acronis instructions - I did install over 2012/7133! And after a warning I did deactivate Eset NOD Antivirus.
>I think you need to use the cleanup tool for 2012 after having uninstall 2012, then reboot. Install 2013 in a clean boot environment using msconfig.<
Will do - but where do I find this tool? Can you give me a link please?
And could you please put exact install-instructions in your manual and on to your product side?
I have looked for that and did not find any warnings!
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2013 cleanup uility: http://kb.acronis.com/content/34876
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Thank you!
Had just found this
http://kb.acronis.com/de/content/26545?nocache=1
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USE THIS ONE: http://kb.acronis.com/content/24545
It is more up to date!
Be sure to follow the instructions carefully. Do not let the utility reboot the computer. COmplete all instructions, in particular the last 2 registry edits, before rebooting.

Well - I got the Utility - but rebootet - perhaps that was wrong - I have the very same problems as before
will try what you said - but this is the last time I try - I am not happy with all this! Paid for much trouble and time I could have done other things.....
Why is all this so complicated?
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I used the 2013 cleanup utility, and it successfully removed everything without any manual steps. After reinstalling, my problems were gone. There's no need to install in a "clean boot environment".
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Did you use the 2013 cleanup utility to deinstall TIH2012???
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I had this problem on a fresh install of Windows-7 64-Bit with an install of ATIH-2013 (Build 5551), so it is not necessarily caused by upgrading to ATIH-2013 from an older version (although an upgrade might somehow trigger it) - it is definitely caused by ATIH-2013.
I restored the Windows-7 64-Bit system (that I backed up before installing ATIH-2013) and it installed okay with no problems - so it does not always happen.
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Well, my W7x64 was clean and newly installed on 26th August 2011 - no problems so far.
And the COM surrogate Message and explorer-lagging etc only come, when TIH 2013 is installed - regardless, if I do uninstall the TIH2012 B7133 before that or not..........since I did not install or alter anything at the same time the idea, that the problems are caused by TIH2013 seems not so far fetched.
Previously the problem was reported with DivX etc - see google........but I do not have such things.
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krabbe wrote:Did you use the 2013 cleanup utility to deinstall TIH2012???
Yes, I did. It's not only for True Image 2013. The cleanup utility removes ALL True Image and Disk Director products, new and old, as noted in the screen shot (https://kb.acronis.com/system/files/content/2012/08/34876/a1583.png). You should always use the most recent cleanup utility, which is 2013.
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Thank you very much for this!
Will try again as soon as I will have the "nerve" to do it again.........
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Same issue here, getting the Com surrogate message with TI 2013 on a system were no Acronis products have ever been installed.
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@DFW: you might try this ( hope you understand German)
http://www.wintotal.de/tipparchiv/?id=1401
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Hello Everyone,
thank you for reporting this issue in our forum.
Unfortunately, there is no general solution to this problem. This issue has been resolved in the latest build of True Image 2013 by Acronis (Build 5551).
If you continue to experience this issue after installing the latest build, please contact our Support team with this report.
Please find additional information about our support options in our Customer Handbook.
If there is anything else, we can do for you, please let me know.
Thank you.
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Peter Vigoureux
Acronis Customer Central | Acronis Backup Software
For more answers to your questions, try our Knowledge Base and Video Tutorials.Check our Corporate and Consumer Handbooks and Online Documentation for help on managing your account, products and support.
Our mission is to create Customer success. Our management team welcomes your comments and suggestions on how we can improve the overall support we provide to you. Please send your comments, suggestions, or concerns to Managers or submit your feedback here.

Peter Vigoureux wrote:This issue has been resolved in the latest build of True Image 2013 by Acronis (Build 5551).
Hi Peter & all, this issue has NOT been solved. I installed TI2013 Build 5551 as an update to TI Home 2010 and experienced the described problem. After finding this thread I de-installed 2013, used the 2013 Cleanup Tool, an re-installed 2013. Problem fixed. If you have a tool to do a proper cleanup, why is it not integrated into the installer?Cheers, Martin
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I too have TI2013 Build 5551 installed as an upgrade to TI2012 on Win7-64. I periodically get the COM Surrogate Failure message, usually when exiting other programs, navigating in explorer, etc. It seems more prevalent if I stop and disable the Acronis Sync Agent Service. So now I leave it running with automatic start - in spite of the fact that I do not use it.
I may try doing the cleanup utility and reinstalling 2013 fresh, but dread the possibility of having to go in and recreate my backup jobs after reinstalling fresh.
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Hi James,
TI2013 comes with a tool to export and import backup settings. Although I didn't try this out I would assume this will cover your issue.
The COM Surrogate error has completely gone away after the procedure described in my last post. It was not related to disabled services and shell extensions. I did exactly the same as you and set the startup type of all (to me) unnecessary services to "manual", and disabled the broken Windows integration (properties sheet etc) directly after installation. After running into the COM issue I reverted all changes. Didn't help.
After re-installation TI2013 is running fine with all services set to "manual" startup and with disabled Windows integration. The root cause is definitely the broken cleanup during update.
I'm quite sure TI2013 will rune fine for you if you follow the same procedure.
Cheers,
Martin
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Thanks, Martin.
I'll probably try the export/import tool. But I fear that will only recreate my backup settings.... not all the history about individual backup files and versions (full, incremental) that are currently stored about each backup job. When I reinstall 2013 from scratch after cleaning up the underlying mess, I want may backups and their existing state recovered as they are today. I guess I'll do a cold backup of my system in case there are issues. Worst case, I just recreate everything from scratch.
Wouldn't be the first time an Acronis version upgrade required basically starting from scratch. Sad as that may be. :(
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I have observed the same intermittent error, along with other errors in the log, when *not* leaving the Acronis services on their default "automatic" startup setting: either disabled or manual. I have never seen with the services on automatic.
With 2011 and 2012, I typically disabled these services. It seems 2013 doesn't like this much.

I went ahead and did a 2013 uninstall, ran the cleanup tool, and reinstalled fresh. I decided to just go clean-slate and set up all my backup jobs from scratch. So far so good. I've disabled sync agent service and non-stop backup service and so far have seen no Com Surrogate errors. Probably just my imagination, but backups seem to be running a little faster and the interface seems a bit smoother.
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Peter Vigoureux wrote: "This issue has been resolved in the latest build of True Image 2013 by Acronis (Build 5551)."
Peter, I have had the "Com Surrogate" problem occur with both 32-bit and 64-bit "fresh installs" of Windows-7 Professional and ATIH-2013 Build 5551.... so it is not fixed. Nor is it an issue with upgrading to ATIH-2013 from an earlier version.
I was doing testing on the WinBuilder script I was using with ATIH-2013 Build 5551 (before I shelved it because of the backup file naming convention) and the "Com Surrogate" problem was happening - and that was on a fresh install of Windows-7. If I restored the Windows-7 image and installed ATIH-2013 again, it would usually not reoccur - although I did have it repeat a couple times with 64-Bit Windows-7.
For what it might be worth - it appears (to me) the Com Surrogate problem could be an installation issue with ATIH-2013... I noticed that when the problem did occur, it would repeat itself across restarts of Windows-7.
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Well... I spoke too soon. I have gotten 1 Com Surrogate error now after doing the clean reinstall. So I've reset the 2 acronis services to automatically start again. Haven't seen the error since, but I think I need to run for much longer before making any statements. I'm very skeptical that the issue is fixed. Will update with any new news.
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Hello Everyone,
Thank you for your detailed feedbacks.
Please accept my apologies for your trouble, using True Image 2013 by Acronis. If you get this error by using True Image 2013 by Acronis, then contact Support. Find more Information about your support options in our Customers Handbook.
Please be aware, that our forum is not an official support forum.
If there is anything else, we can do for you, please let me know.
Thank you.
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Peter Vigoureux
Acronis Customer Central | Acronis Backup Software
For more answers to your questions, try our Knowledge Base and Video Tutorials.Check our Corporate and Consumer Handbooks and Online Documentation for help on managing your account, products and support.
Our mission is to create Customer success. Our management team welcomes your comments and suggestions on how we can improve the overall support we provide to you. Please send your comments, suggestions, or concerns to Managers or submit your feedback here.

Hello
I had Acronis 2013 TIH trial installed on Win7-64 pc, but had to remove it because of Com surrogate error and slow explorer response. Could not resolve the problem with cleanup utility, or other tips in the thread or elsewhere. I'm quite certain the problem is in Acronis 2013 TIH itself. Have for now Acronis 2012 TIH installed and no problems, everything is working fine. The same with 2011, no problems. I hope Acronis support team comes up with a fix for the problem. As for now I'm not going for an upgrade to Acronis 2013.
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Tom S,
Did you disable any Acronis service? If not, verify that Acronis Non-Stop Backup service and Acronis Sync service are running.

No, I didn't disable any services. Both non stop back-up and sync service were running. Any other suggestions? Thanks for input.
Version Acronis True Image Home 2013 Build 5551, sync agent version 16,0,0,6671.
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Tom S,
I am running out of ideas. I trigger the issue when I stop the Acronis non stop and sync agent services. As I do this, the error shows intermittently.
I have signaled this thread to ACronis.

Exactly the same behavior here. I did a full reinstall of ATIH 2013 after running the cleanup utility. Even recreated all my backups from scratch. I do not get Com surrogate failure error messages as long as those 2 services are running. If I disable them I get the error messages sporadically. SO for now I just leave them running - even though I do not use those services.
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I wonder what the trigger is, or what other conditions must be present for the failures to occur. I disabled those services in 2013 on a Win7 Pro 64-bit system this week, with no reported ill effect.
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I am not staff and am not paid. I provide help on a volunteer basis on my own time.

DFW wrote:Same issue here, getting the Com surrogate message with TI 2013 on a system were no Acronis products have ever been installed.
I get the Com Surrogate error with a clean install of win 7, clean install of TI 2013, with all the TI 2013 services running to default installation.
I Have tried the DEP fixes which were of no help.
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I must say I am very disappointed.
I had similar problem and had posted a thread at 28452. I had 10 incidents of the crash and had the bug reports prepared by Soluto, and I am prepared to give it to anybody (from Acronis? Windows?) who is prepared to investigate and fix the problem. The file is in Html. Only if I know where to send.
Having waited for 2 weeks and with the hope that the bug might have been fixed (since i heard so much outcry about this problem here), I reinstalled True Image. After about a day of two, the same crash happened intermittently again. I had no choice but to uninstal again.
I like True Image... but I cannot live with this problem. What happens if this problem occurs when I am in the critical stage of trying to recover a corrupt system?
Is this a Windows bug, or Acronis?
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Hello Everyone,
Thank you for your posts and ideas.
I want to thank Pat L, tuttle, Colin B and James F for your help.
Please accept my apologies for your trouble, using True Image 2013 by Acronis. If you get this error by using True Image 2013 by Acronis, then contact Support. Find more Information about your support options in our Customers Handbook.
Please be aware, that our forum is not an official support forum.
If there is anything else, we can do for you, please let me know.
Thank you.
- Log in to post comments
Peter Vigoureux
Acronis Customer Central | Acronis Backup Software
For more answers to your questions, try our Knowledge Base and Video Tutorials.Check our Corporate and Consumer Handbooks and Online Documentation for help on managing your account, products and support.
Our mission is to create Customer success. Our management team welcomes your comments and suggestions on how we can improve the overall support we provide to you. Please send your comments, suggestions, or concerns to Managers or submit your feedback here.

Hello all,
Thank you for your reports.
To give the issue a closer investigation please obtain a dump file of the dllhost.exe process by means of ProcDump utility.
- Download ProcDump from Windows Sysinternals site;
- Unzip the archive and put the procdump.exe file to the root of C: drive
- Open Windows Command-line: Hit Start -> Run and type in cmd;
- In CMD, switch to the C: (for example, enter the "cd\" command without quotas)
- Type the following command: Procdump –ma –e –w dllhost.exe
- Reproduce the issue and obtain the dump file.
Send me a Private Message, I will generate a link to a FTP account to upload the file.
Thank you.

Hello all
I suppose there is no official fix yet for the error. I experience the error and can't find a way round it, but it's not present on every boot (7 out of 10, which is strange). Tried all uninstalls etc. Only solution for now seems to be uninstall of 2013 TIH and revert to 2012. Support has not been able to help, investigating the issue.
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Hello all,
If you want to get rid of this error, as a temporal solution you can rename the ti_managers_proxy.dll file that is located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\TrueImageHome
You can rename the file to, for example, ti_manager_proxy_1.dll
This workaround will corrupt the sync overlays and the file version functionality.
Thank you.

Hi
It really helped renaming ti_managers_proxy.dll => ti_managers_proxy_1.dll. No errors/crashes after that. Maybe we'll get a permanent fix soon?
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Dear Acronis Programmers:
I use:
Acronis True Image Home 2012
Windows 7 (64) Ultimate
Serivice Pack 1, (with ALL latest updates)
There appears to be an incompatibility issue with Windows 7 "Dllhost.exe" (version 6.1.7600.16385), "kernel32.dll", "ntdll.dll", and ""tishell32.dll" (True Image Shell?) See below for full error particulars.
Please provide a fix?
Thank you!
"COM Surrogate has stopped working."
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: DllHost.exe
Application Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Application Timestamp: 4a5bc6b7
Fault Module Name: StackHash_22a0
Fault Module Version: 6.1.7601.17725
Fault Module Timestamp: 4ec49b8f
Exception Code: c0000374
Exception Offset: 000ce6c3
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 22a0
Additional Information 2: 22a0c6bc8282b851fcd2b3e1d517f5b1
Additional Information 3: b25a
Additional Information 4: b25a7bfdc01bac6c3fddb574d0f6d343
Read our privacy statement online:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409
If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt
Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Users\GSR\AppData\Local\Temp\WER61CE.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
C:\Users\GSR\AppData\Local\Temp\WER7510.tmp.appcompat.txt
C:\Users\GSR\AppData\Local\Temp\WER7511.tmp.mdmp
Read our privacy statement online:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409
If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt
WER7510.tmp.appcompat.txt
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>
WER61CE.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>
6.1
7601 Service Pack 1
(0x1): Windows 7 Ultimate
Ultimate
7601.17944.amd64fre.win7sp1_gdr.120830-0333
1130
Multiprocessor Free
X64
1033
APPCRASH
DllHost.exe
6.1.7600.16385
4a5bc6b7
tishell32.dll
15.0.0.7133
4fec5e68
c0000005
00162377
6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
1033
0a9e
0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
0a9e
0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
7B1C69DA-41AB-4AA8-A66F-4E933B203835
Dell Inc.
XPS L521X
A11
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116979-104827.txt | 5.99 KB |
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By the way, renaming ti_managers_proxy.dll did NOT resolve the problem as indicated.
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Hello Paul,
Thank you for your comments.
The fix provided in one of my previous posts, can be applied to True Image Home 2013 only.
Could you please download and install the trial version of True Image Home 2013 and see if the issue remains?
We are investigating the issue now, and your help will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

I'm having the same problems. Clean Windows 8 install on a brand new 250gb SSD. 2013 edition.
Just uninstalled the full version and ran the cleanup utility, before finding this thread.
*edit* reinstalled the application through run as admin. added the acronis directory to windows defender exclusions. added acronis directory to comodo defense+ trusted files. added acronis directory to exclusions under defense+ execution control settings.
It seems something I did resolved the problem, which one I have no clue ;)
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The main issues with this seems to be that there is a conflict between Windows and ATIH. This occurs randomly in the default installation and is some interaction between explorer and ATIH. This seems to happen if you boot the system, log in and start an explorer session BEFORE the ATIH process(es) is/are really running properly.
In Windows 7 using the resource monitor look for the dllhost processes, right click and use the analyse wait chain.
One of the processes will have a long chain of threads. If this process is killed then everything returns to normal and the issue does not seem to reoccur
reinstalling/repairing ATIH may just have changes something that causes a slightly different timing when the system is booted, hence eliminating the issue.