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

Question

Hi, 
 we are getting this Message "Sophos SafeGuard Authentication Service is not running, no further action possible!" before logging on into Windows. After we klick okay, we can only logon with Microsoft Credential Provider, not with the SafeGuard one. In Windows Event Log we can see the following Error: 
 Name der fehlerhaften Anwendung: BEDevCtl.exe, Version: 8.0.0.251, Zeitstempel: 0x577aeca0 Name des fehlerhaften Moduls: WS2_32.dll_unloaded, Version: 0.0.0.0, Zeitstempel: 0x57334d8c Ausnahmecode: 0xc0000005 Fehleroffset: 0x75b639c2 ID des fehlerhaften Prozesses: 0xa8c Startzeit der fehlerhaften Anwendung: 0x01d1ec982417f81c Pfad der fehlerhaften Anwendung: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\BEDevCtl.exe Pfad des fehlerhaften Moduls: WS2_32.dll Berichtskennung: 61c83c3c-588b-11e6-9436-005056c00008 Vollst&auml;ndiger Name des fehlerhaften Pakets: %14 Anwendungs-ID, die relativ zum fehlerhaften Paket ist: %15 
 Also reparing the SafeGuard Client Installation didnt help to solve this Issue. I watched also the following KB: https://community.sophos.com/kb/de-de/111913 and followed the second point but there is no depending SmartCard Service of the SafeGuard Authentication Service. 
 Right now we have two Machines with this Error, one was a fresh installation and the other was updated from SafeGuard 6.10. Did anyone have the same issue with SafeGuard 8.00.0.251? 
 regards Frank-Michael

Frank-Michael Bickel · Accepted Answer

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: &bdquo;HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SQMClient\Windows\CEIPEnable&ldquo;. 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 A newer Version of this dll will be delivered by the following Microsft Security Patch: KB3161949 https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=52912 Maybe a fresh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