In Event Viewer I am seeing lots of errors and warning related to DeviceSetupManager problems. Judging from other questions, this is happening widely. I have been investigating this issue and believe I have some information which may be useful to Microsoft engineers. I have included a lot of data, so this is a long post.
First, here is a list of event entries which appear to all be related to this issue.
Event ID 200 - Warning - DeviceSetupManager - "A connection to the Windows Update service could not be established." 1/19/2024
Event ID 201 - Warning - DeviceSetupManager - "A connection to the Windows Metadata and Internet Services (WMIS) could not be established." 1/19/2024
Event ID 202 - Warning - DeviceSetupManager - "The Network List Manager reports no connectivity to the internet." 1/19/2024
Event ID 131 - Error - DeviceSetupManager - "Metadata staging failed, result=0x80072EFE for container '{936BBD1F-3F6B-11ED-882B-A4BB6DC6CC51}'" 1/19/2024
Event ID 131 - Error - DeviceSetupManager - "Metadata staging failed, result=0x80072F78 for container '{936BB9A3-3F6B-11ED-882B-806E6F6E6963}'" 1/19/2024
Event ID 131 - Error - DeviceSetupManager - "Metadata staging failed, result=0x80070490 for container '{003D2803-8A03-55FA-AACE-E0FC0D0FF0DB}'" 1/10/2024
There are a total of 198 of these events between 1/13/2024 and 1/19/2024 on my system.
I often see a cluster of 2-4 Event ID 202 items, separated by 1 millisecond or less. They nearly always occur during times
when I am actively using the system, and there was no noticeable loss of internet access as seen at the user level.
For event ID 131, using Microsoft's Err_6.4.5, here are possible meanings of the result codes:
0x80072EFE
C:\home\wjhb> err 0x80072EFE
for hex 0x80072efe / decimal -2147012866
WININET_E_CONNECTION_ABORTED winerror.h
The connection with the server was terminated abnormally
1 matches found for "0x80072EFE"
0x80072F78
C:\home\wjhb> err 0x80072F78
for hex 0x80072f78 / decimal -2147012744
WININET_E_INVALID_SERVER_RESPONSE winerror.h
The server returned an invalid or unrecognized response
1 matches found for "0x80072F78"
0x80070490
C:\home\wjhb> err 0x80070490
for hex 0x80070490 / decimal -2147023728
PEER_E_NOT_FOUND p2p.h
E_PROP_ID_UNSUPPORTED vfwmsgs.h
The specified property ID is not supported for the
specified property set.%0
WER_E_NOT_FOUND werapi.h
DRM_E_NOT_FOUND windowsplayready.h
as an HRESULT: Severity: FAILURE (1), FACILITY_WIN32 (0x7), Code 0x490
for hex 0x490 / decimal 1168
ERROR_NOT_FOUND winerror.h
Element not found.
5 matches found for "0x80070490"
These all look like HRESULT values:
0x80000000 = severity of warning (or failure if a COM HRESULT - see winerror.h)
0x00070000 = facility of Win32
0x00002efe, 0x00002f78, 0x00000490 are the facility's status codes
As such, the values in winerror.h are most likely to be the correct interpretation in this context.
In another question thread we learned that periodic checks for updated device metadata use values in the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Device Metadata. The value of DeviceMetadataServiceURL under that key contains "http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=252669&clcid=0x409". This URL produces a redirect URL of <http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc>.
I used the wget program to see what happens when the base URL is accessed. Here is a series of examples.
C:\home\wjhb\tmp>wget -nd "http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=252669&clcid=0x409"
--2024-01-11 21:19:34-- http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=252669&clcid=0x409
Resolving go.microsoft.com... 69.192.109.165
Connecting to go.microsoft.com|69.192.109.165|:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc [following]
--2024-01-11 21:19:34-- http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc
Resolving dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com... 138.91.171.81
Connecting to dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com|138.91.171.81|:80... failed: Connection timed out.
Retrying.
--2024-01-11 21:19:56-- (try: 2) http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc
Connecting to dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com|138.91.171.81|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... Read error (Connection reset by peer) in headers.
Retrying.
--2024-01-11 21:21:55-- (try: 3) http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc
Connecting to dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com|138.91.171.81|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 502 Bad Gateway
2024-01-11 21:24:42 ERROR 502: Bad Gateway.
================================================================================
C:\home\wjhb\tmp>ucrt wget -nd "http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=252669&clcid=0x409"
--2024-01-19 16:39:29-- http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=252669&clcid=0x409
Resolving go.microsoft.com (go.microsoft.com)... 2600:1402:b800:686::2c1a, 2600:1402:b800:682::2c1a, 23.54.202.151
Connecting to go.microsoft.com (go.microsoft.com)|2600:1402:b800:686::2c1a|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc [following]
--2024-01-19 16:39:29-- http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc
Resolving dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com (dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com)... 138.91.171.81
Connecting to dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com (dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com)|138.91.171.81|:80... failed: timed out.
Retrying.
--2024-01-19 16:39:51-- (try: 2) http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc
Connecting to dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com (dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com)|138.91.171.81|:80... failed: timed out.
Retrying.
--2024-01-19 16:40:14-- (try: 3) http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc
Connecting to dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com (dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com)|138.91.171.81|:80... failed: timed out.
Retrying.
--2024-01-19 16:40:38-- (try: 4) http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc
Connecting to dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com (dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com)|138.91.171.81|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... No data received.
Retrying.
--2024-01-19 16:40:48-- (try: 5) http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc
Connecting to dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com (dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com)|138.91.171.81|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 502 Bad Gateway
2024-01-19 16:41:28 ERROR 502: Bad Gateway.
================================================================================
C:\home\wjhb\tmp>ucrt wget -nd "http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=252669&clcid=0x409"
--2024-01-20 15:27:33-- http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=252669&clcid=0x409
Resolving go.microsoft.com (go.microsoft.com)... 2600:1402:3800:297::2c1a, 2600:1402:3800:2ad::2c1a, 23.36.70.120
Connecting to go.microsoft.com (go.microsoft.com)|2600:1402:3800:297::2c1a|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc [following]
--2024-01-20 15:27:33-- http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc
Resolving dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com (dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com)... 20.231.121.79
Connecting to dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com (dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com)|20.231.121.79|:80... failed: timed out.
Retrying.
--2024-01-20 15:27:55-- (try: 2) http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc
Connecting to dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com (dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com)|20.231.121.79|:80... failed: timed out.
Retrying.
--2024-01-20 15:28:18-- (try: 3) http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc
Connecting to dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com (dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com)|20.231.121.79|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 502 Bad Gateway
2024-01-20 15:28:20 ERROR 502: Bad Gateway.
================================================================================
So, in recent days, I see lots of connection attempts timing out, one case of "connection reset by peer", one case of "no data received" and many "502 Bad Gateway" errors.
Resolving dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com in DNS returns a series of IP addresses, no doubt for load balancing. Earlier today it started returning 52.142.223.178, which appears to be in Amsterdam. Each server is giving the same results, mostly "502 Bad Gateway" errors.
I believe my results readily tie back to the HRESULT values seen in the Event ID 131 entries, especially WININET_E_CONNECTION_ABORTED and WININET_E_INVALID_SERVER_RESPONSE.
Whatever program lurks behind <http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc> is obviously having a lot of problems. With tens (or hundreds) of millions of Windows systems doing periodic checks for updated device metadata, any slowdown or hang in the program behind the gateway will cause the server's listening socket's queue to fill up, probably resulting in those connection timeouts. The other results likely follow from the same problem. Whatever the cause, this has been happening for quite a while now so I hope that the underlying problem can be corrected, thus allowing checks for updated device metadata to succeed again.
In the interest of providing complete information about the Event Log entries, and at the risk of extending an already long post, here is one full example of each event ID, as provided by the Event Viewer. (Edit: this editor strips out all of the XML tags in the XML data part of the export, rendering it unusable. Therefore, I am only including the text part of the entries.)
================================================================================
Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager/Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager
Date: 1/19/2024 5:08:44 PM
Event ID: 131
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: D***MI
Description:
Metadata staging failed, result=0x80072EFE for container '{936BBD1F-3F6B-11ED-882B-A4BB6DC6CC51}'
===================================================================================================
Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager/Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager
Date: 1/19/2024 8:49:11 PM
Event ID: 131
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: D***6MI
Description:
Metadata staging failed, result=0x80072F78 for container '{00000000-0000-0000-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF}'
===================================================================================================
Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager/Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager
Date: 1/10/2024 4:50:07 AM
Event ID: 131
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: DE***6MI
Description:
Metadata staging failed, result=0x80070490 for container '{003D2803-8A03-55FA-AACE-E0FC0D0FF0DB}'
===================================================================================================
Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager/Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager
Date: 1/19/2024 8:47:15 PM
Event ID: 200
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: DE***MI
Description:
A connection to the Windows Update service could not be established.
===================================================================================================
Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager/Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager
Date: 1/19/2024 8:48:06 PM
Event ID: 201
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: DES***6MI
Description:
A connection to the Windows Metadata and Internet Services (WMIS) could not be established.
===================================================================================================
Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager/Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager
Date: 1/19/2024 8:47:15 PM
Event ID: 202
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: DE***6MI
Description:
The Network List Manager reports no connectivity to the internet.
===================================================================================================
Note: I am not aware that I am having any difficulties with internet connectivity. I believe the descriptions in the events are responding to various error codes and making an assumption about possible causes. Connection failures to Microsoft servers are generally expected to be due to network problems, not server problems, so this is perhaps an understandable way to summarize a variety of error codes.
Also, I recently ran DISM to look for corrupted system files and SFC to correct any problems. Neither tool found any issues. The above evidence clearly shows that the underlying problem is not on my system, but on the servers responding to the <http://dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/metadata.svc> URL.
Thoughts, ideas, suggestions gratefully accepted.
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