Service Start Failed (Win 11 26H1 Arm64)

[ignitionnight]

I got a new snapdragon laptop two months ago, Windhawk was one of the first apps I installed. Worked perfectly for about 6-7 weeks, but a week or so ago I realized none of the mods were working. I tried rebooting, disabling all mods and starting one at a time. After basic troubleshooting I tried reinstalling, but now when reinstalling I'm running into an error with starting the service.

I assume the service failing to start was probably the same issue that caused it to stop working initially.

Windhawk is working perfectly on my desktop with ryzen on 25H2, so I assume this is a windows compatibility issue, I just don't know if this is due to a setting on my part, or Windows broke windhawk with an update, and if the latter is true if there's anything I can do to fix it.

[m417z]

Are there any events in Event Viewer (can be opened from the Start menu) under Windows Logs > Application?

Also, please try enabling safe mode via the registry, then installing:

• Setting the SafeMode value to 1 in the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Windhawk\Settings.
• Install Windhawk, I believe it should succeed.
• Open Windhawk, it should run in safe mode. Disable all mods.
• Then disable safe mode. Let me know if it works. If it does, the problem might be related to one of the installed mods.

[ignitionnight]

So before I originally uninstalled I actually deleted all mods. I walked through the steps you gave me and it did install, but after disabling safemode and then restarting the program I still can't get a single module to work. When I enable a mod nothing happens, which was the behavior I experienced before posting this bug. I uninstalled all mods and tried to re-install and again got the Service Start Failed warning again.

I checked the event viewer and there are almost 6000 events under the application section. I used the find button and searched for windhawk and it found an event from the first day I installed windhawk, there was an error with one of the mods. Since then though, every mod was working including the one that failed on the first day (I can't even remember what the fail was, it worked immediately after). There were no other errors that the search found with windhawk included.

If there's something more specific I should be looking for in the event viewer let me know.

[m417z]

Crash reports are logged as errors in Event Viewer. I thought that maybe you could find a crash event that can provide some hints about the crash, if the service indeed crashes.

Other things to try:

Enable crash dumps, and see if a crash dump for windhawk.exe is created:

• Open regedit
• Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting
• Create a key named LocalDumps
• Create a DWORD value named DumpType with value 2
• Run Windhawk
• Go to the %LocalAppData%\CrashDumps folder, if there was a crash, you should see a dump file in there

Another things that might help is Windhawk logs. Run Windhawk, go to settings > advanced settings > more advanced settings, and enable verbose logging (first 2 options). Then exit Windhawk completely, download and run DebugView as administrator, enable both "Capture Win32" and "Capture Global Win32" under the "Capture" menu, and run Windhawk. Save the log and post it here.

[ignitionnight]

Sorry for slow response, long week at work. This is happening on my work laptop too (I own it and have full control, just the device I use for work). I tried the CrashDump and there was nothing.

Attached DebugView log.

DebugView.log

[ignitionnight]

Tried to manually start the service and get this error.

[ignitionnight]

Figured with all the install/uninstalling back and forth, why not try 2.0 Alpha 3. The new build works just fine without any of the safemode tricks! Something about the service in 1.7.3 vs 2.0.a3 has to be the issue here right? Is there anything in Windows that would be blocking the service from 1.7.3 but not interfering with 2.0.a3?

Rather than be that guy and ask for an ETA full 2.0 release I'll the other guy and ask if you can identify the issue is there any chance for a 1.7.4?

[m417z]

This is happening on my work laptop too

Are both ARM64?

Something about the service in 1.7.3 vs 2.0.a3 has to be the issue here right?

No idea. In 2.0, the service is 64-bit, unlike 1.7.3 where it's 32-bit, perhaps that's related. There were many other changes.

Rather than be that guy and ask for an ETA full 2.0 release I'll the other guy and ask if you can identify the issue is there any chance for a 1.7.4?

At this point, perhaps it's best to just use 2.0 alpha. It has some minor issues (as does 1.7.3), but it was reported to be fairly stable overall.

[m417z]

Attached DebugView log.

DebugView.log

That's helpful, thanks. It indeed seems to be related to the 32-bit service, but it can also be an issue with 2.0 with other 32-bit processes.

Here's a troubleshoot tool that collects some info. Please run it and post the output here, thanks.

windhawk-arm64-troubleshoot.zip

[ignitionnight]

Are both ARM64?

Sorry, one laptop. Just meant that I own it and use it for work. Trying to say that even though work laptop, there's no control of the device from my employer.

[ignitionnight]

Here's a troubleshoot tool that collects some info. Please run it and post the output here, thanks.

windhawk-arm64-troubleshoot.zip

Here's the results. I wasn't sure if it mattered if Windhawk was installed, and if so which version you'd prefer... so I did each option just in case.

windhawk-arm64-troubleshoot - Without WH.txt

windhawk-arm64-troubleshoot - With WH 1.7.3.txt

windhawk-arm64-troubleshoot - With WH 2.0.a3.txt

[m417z]

Thanks, that provides the info I hoped for. I implemented a fix, please run the updated tool to verify that it works, and post the output. It's enough to run it once, it doesn't matter which Windhawk is installed.

windhawk-arm64-troubleshoot.zip

[ignitionnight]

Here's the new log. I'm using 2.0.a3 for now and it's been stable, but wouldn't mind switching back to the main branch so UniGetUI keeps it updated.

windhawk-arm64-troubleshoot 1.1.txt

[m417z]

Thanks, that confirms that the fix works. It will be part of the next 2.0 pre-release version.

It's unlikely that I'll release 1.7.4 just for this fix since this issue isn't common among ARM64 users, which is by itself quite uncommon.