Sophos SafeGuard Authentication Service is not running, no further action possible! on SafeGuard 8.00.0.251

We're experiencing the same issue with one of our computers on Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) on a Dell Lattitude E5550. It is a fresh install of SafeGuard 8.00.0.251 and have tried to repair the install, but this has no effect.

Also, we've been unable to remove the software using the uninstaller (an error message appears saying that administrator privileges are required to remove it). As the drive has not yet been encrypted, we had success doing the following to remove the software:

* Booting off an external USB drive with Windows 7 installer on it.

* Entering the command prompt and running:

bootrec /FixMBr

bcdboot c:\windows /s d:

chkdsk c: /f

This removed the SafeGuard POA screen on startup and allowed the software to be uninstalled. We have uninstalled all components (the configuration package, encryption software and pre-install software) and attempted to reinstall all three, however the same issue occurs when installing the encryption software -  "Sophos SafeGuard Authentication Service is not running, no further action possible!" on the first reboot.

* CORRECTION* The machine having the issue is a Dell Latitude E5570. 

Additionally, we've just installed performed a fresh install on two identical E5570s from out of the box - one installed successfully, the other did not. Also, forgot to mention that we've also tried the resolution suggested in KB article 111913, but this did not fix the issue either.

Hi,

you can follow this Article: https://technet.microsoft.com/de-de/library/cc756342(v=ws.10).aspx
Set the ServicesPipeTimeout Value to 60.000 ms and reboot your System. Is the Service starting now correctly?

We are still experiencing this Issue, also setting this Value to 60.000 ms didnt help for us. We are still trying to solve this Issue. Sophos Support didnt had any solution for us so far.

best regards

Frank

Hi,

you can follow this Article: https://technet.microsoft.com/de-de/library/cc756342(v=ws.10).aspx
Set the ServicesPipeTimeout Value to 60.000 ms and reboot your System. Is the Service starting now correctly?

We are still experiencing this Issue, also setting this Value to 60.000 ms didnt help for us. We are still trying to solve this Issue. Sophos Support didnt had any solution for us so far.

best regards

Frank

Hi,

finaly I found a solution for our Issue "Sophos SafeGuard Authentication Service is not running, no further action possible!".

It is an Issue with the ws2_32.dll which could not be loaded corectly. I am not sure if it is an Issue itself with this dll or with other related Services according to this dll. What I have done is: I deactivated the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP). This is done by changing the following Registry Key to the Value of 0: „HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SQMClient\Windows\CEIPEnable“. This resolved our Issue.

What we done before is to change the ws2_32.dll with the original dll from a Win 7 Install Source, because we were not sure if this dll was corrupted. A newer Version of this dll will be delivered by the following Microsft Security Patch: KB3161949 https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=52912 Maybe a fresh Installation of this Security Patch will also resolve this Issue.

kind regards

Frank

Hi Frank,

Thanks for the update on this - we'll give this a shot.

Kind regards

Chris

Brightsource IT

Just wanted to note that this worked for us as well. Good work. I didn't do the ws2_32.dll replacement though.

Thanks Frank,

Changing the registry entry sorted the issue we were having too. Much appreciated.

Regards

Chris

Brightsource IT

hi

i have exactly this isiue on 3 laptops out of 25, the rest installed as expected. they are all the same model of Lenovo x230.

when i change the reg key as described above, the laptop boots to the login screen then shuts down and i have boot into winpe to change the reg key back

any ideas on what else i could try

thanks 

Has anyone been able to resolve this issue by deploying or re-deploying the security patch? 

Also, what implications does replacing the ws2_32.dll with the original have? if this file were to be updated in the future, would it cause the issue to return?

Finally, once the install has completed and the SGN client has received policy, can the CEIPEnable key be returned to 1, or does it need to remain at 0?