John Nelson's Blog

8004E00F – COM+ was unable to talk to Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator

Posted on July 24, 2013 Updated on August 6, 2014

Problem Overview

When you open the Windows Component Services Configuration Console (dcomcnfg), you see a red, downward-pointing arrow on the My Computer icon under Component Services as shown below.

This error is commonly caused by the MSDTC service being set to run under the local system account instead of NT Authority\NetworkService.

If you check the MSDTC service and discover that this is indeed the problem, follow these steps to change the identity:

1. Open the Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
2. Find the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MSDTC
3. Right-click TurnOffRpcSecurity, then select Modify. Add a value of 1.
4. Open the Services Console and stop the MSDTC service.
5. Right-click the service and select Properties on the popup menu.
6. When the Properties dialog opens, click the Log On tab and change the identity to NT Authority\NetworkService (the password is blank).
7. Click Apply then click OK.
8. Return to the Services management console and restart the MSDTC service.

If the problem persists, check the Application Log within the Event Viewer and look for errors (red icons). The Event Viewer is a great resource for finding out what is really going on.

One possible solution is to stop the service, uninstall and then reinstall MSDTC. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Stop the MSDTC service.
2. Open a command prompt (cmd).
3. Type “msdtc -uninstall”.
4. Type “msdtc -install”
5. Close the command prompt.