AD snapin will not open

When trying to open Active Directory Users and Computers I get the following...
"Microsoft Management Console has encountered a problem and needs to close"
Looking at the error message it shows..
"AppName: mmc.exe AppVer: 5.2.3790.3959 ModName: kernel32.dll
ModVer: 5.2.3790.4062"
The technical data shows exception information of...
"Code: 0xe06d7363 Flags: 0x00000001"
Event Viewer only really shows the general event id of 1000 and some of the
information above.
I've tried a few things from the knowledge base but nothing seems to be
directly related to the same problem. I have tried reinstalling SP2 as well
as reinstall Microsoft Management Console 3.0
When I tried reinstalling MMC 3.0 I get the error....
"Setup has detected that the Service Pack version of this system is newer
than the update you are applying"
Any other suggestions?

Is it only dsa.msc? Try to open "mmc -32 dsa.msc" from the run command. What
if you reinstall the adminpak?

Yes, it is only dsa.msc. All other snapins work fine. Thanks for the quick
reply, and yes, it does open fine using that command. Reinstalling the
adminpak just gives me the error that a newer version is already installed.

What if you create a new shortcut to dsa.msc, seems that something has broken
only this one.

[bisonit]

I am in the exact same boat with the exact same problems and have attempted the exact same things!!!!!

This is a application server running a HUGE EMR data base and the last thing I want to do is install everything over again as I nuke the OS to fix it.

What same thing? You are replying to an older posting which is removed from
the newsgroup. So please describe in detail what happens, which error messages
occur and also post event viewer errors if exist. Do not forget OS version
and SP/patch level.

[Fearl3$$]

Hi there, I see that this is quite a old post, but I am willing to give it a try.

I have the same problem, with dsa.msc everything else works but dsa.msc.
I also Tried re-installing managment console 3. And also tells me that A newer version is installed.
I tried Renaming dsa.msc to dsa1.msc and created a new MMC Snapin and saved it as dsa.msc in %windir%\System32. It works but, everytime you go into the MMC saved snapin it asks to save. Witch it is not supposed to do.

I have tried installing Adminpack SP2 for Server 2003. But the instalation stops responding, and you have to "end process" the task, for it to cancel the installation.

Using "Run as" and a completly other Enterprize admin Account dsa.msc works fine. even logging on with the other account to the server it works.
It does not work when you just disable "run this program with restricted access".

I also took away all privlages to the Primary admin account that is used on the server, and placed it back as it was, to reset permissions, on the file and on the domain for that Admin account. Still had no luck.

Only thing I did not try yet was Resetting password of that account.
Deleting and recreating the account is aslo not an option.

I checked if security policies are correctly inplace for the Admin account. And everything is correct.

I cant see why dsa.msc just suddenly could not been accessed by the Admin account, because nothing has changed on the server at all. No update's where applied the day or even month before this has happend.

Are there someone with a solution to this?.

[kman26]

I had this same problem just today.
The entry above led to the solution:
Try opening a command window and enter the command "mmc -32 dsa.msc".
Enter the text between the quotes and not the quotes.

If this works then the application is working properly and it could well be the Icon shortcut is no longer good.

Open the properties of the icon (right mouse click - properties)
In there the target may look something like:

Target: C:\WINDOWS\system32\dsa.msc
The start in: C:\WINDOWS\system32

This is what I had.
I changed the Target to:C:\WINDOWS\system32\mmc.exe -32 dsa.msc

Save the change, close the properties and click on the icon to see if it works.
It worked for me.
I don't know why this changed or why it stopped working but this fixed it for me.
Good luck.