[This is Part 1 of a two part problem. You can see the description and solution for the second issue which was no audio during and after the part 1 solution was completed. See Part 2 here.]
I ran into this issue a couple of weeks ago and eventually threw my hands up. Today, I came across the exact same symptoms on another computer so I decided to dig further in and find the cause. After successfully discovering the problem and applying the solution to the first problematic computer, I was able to fix the issue without reloading/refreshing the PCs.
I looked all over the web and was unable to find any mention of this problem with a valid resolution. Most things I found suggested running SFC /SCANNOW which refused to run. I also tried some other repair tools, most of which failed or wouldn’t complete.
In determining the problem and discovering a solution, one of the PCs actually had a 2nd problem with a similar solution regarding audio on the computer. No audio due to “Audio Service not started”. The service fails to start and an error is logged in event viewer that says the reason is “duplicate endpoint”. I’ll post the resolution for the audio problem in a separate post.
Sympomps
Here are the symptoms I was seeing to confirm that you are seeing the same problem as I have:
- Control Panel fails to load. You can get a white explorer box, but the window hangs. It can’t be resized, moved or closed without forcing explorer.exe to close. After that, Control Panel usually won’t load anything at all–not even a white frozen box.
- Lots and lots of repeated Service Control Manager errors from the service “Network List Service”. The reason for the failure to start is “Procedure not found”
- The Network Connection Broker service is stuck in the Starting state.
- Office 2013 programs hang while launching
Resolution
Method 1 (Automatic)
You can download my registry exports included at the end of Part 2 to avoid having to edit the registry. Just download the appropriate .REG file and then double click the file in your downloads list to import the registry key. No knowledge needed.
Method 2 (Manual)
- Open regedit.exe
- Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\netprofm\Parameters - Check the value of ServiceDLL, it should be exactly as follows:
%SYSTEMROOT32%\System32\netprofmsvc.dll(See update note below)
- If it is not, change it to match the above value.
- After making changes, reboot the system and look for the symptoms again.
UPDATED 3/13/2015: Stephen G. commented below about the environment variable being incorrect. At first I thought this was due to 32/64-bit system differences, but I believe I simply added the 32 in %SYSTEMROOT32% accidentally as I do not believe that %SYSTEMROOT32% is a valid path on any Windows operating system. Please verify that there is NOT a 32 in the variable as this will still be an incorrect path. Just ensure the corrected value is in place. Sorry for the type-o.
Total novice here just wanting to say thanks and I owe you a beer! I returned a Toshiba back to the retailer in January over this problem so was devastated to spend triple the amount of cash on a Lenovo only to hit the same problem again.
I don’t know how you found the root cause but most of all your instructions are clear with no tech waffle.
Had the control panel blank in Windows 8.1, no sound (used part 2 of your instructions). Starting up and shutting down was taking a lifetime until I put it into flight mode. Once flight mode was on I was able to follow your guide.
Josh – for info, reading other comments it maybe AVG…… I’m working on a brand new Lenovo Z50. All I have done is uninstalled superfish and installed AVG.
Thanks fella.
Thank you very much, i had this issue for three times, and in the other situations i format the computer, this time you saved me 😀
Just had to thank you for this! Was about to destroy this laptop. Keep up the good work buddy
Thank you for sharing this valuable information.
I have a customer that ran into both hanging control panel and missing audio on an Acer computer with Windows 8.1 yesterday. The computer had crashed during some updates involving AVG, and after that Outlook could not fetch POP3 mail, sound was gone, Windows firewall and Windows updates just freezed, and so on. Very strange behavior.
Following your very precise instructions, both part 1 and part 2, solved the problem and everything is now working Again.
Thank you Again.
Kind regards
Niels
I wanted to come back and leave a THANKS A LOT !!!
After making the registry change and rebooting, the contol pannel works!!
thank you!
(my registry file was %SystemRoot%\System32\netprofmsvc.dll
and I updated it with %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\netprofmsvc.dll )
Santy
from Argentina
This error just popped up on me today! So thankful I came across this and that it worked. #salute
Fantastic solution. Thank you so much. I have been wrestling with this issue for about a month now and tried every tool and fix to no avail. A lot of the solutions posted elsewhere are not possible due to the nature of this bug, even system restore type fixes did not help me.
As an aside when modifying regedit the value initially showed ~\netprofm.dll and when changed went completely blank, only after yet another restart would it accept the new value.
Thanks once more.
Thanks so so much, I was stuck and stressed .. I have just bumped into this and it has worked magic..You are great Man..CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP
You are an awesome individual. you saved me from hours of frustration. my sound and control panel are back. Thanks for your help!!
Josh, thank you for sharing this solution. I have implemented both part 1 and part 2 , with 100% success. Your step by step instructions were absolutely accurate and well-written – but do you yet know the root cause of the problem? Is it linked to Windows or AVG updates? Thanks again !!
You’re are an absolute life saver, thanks ever so much for this! 😀
Thanks so much,i was about to through this laptop away…
Thanks both fixes worked. Though I had to make sure the %SYSTEMROOT% variable was in uppercase. I didnt have any ’32’s in the wrong place, but did have netprofm.dll instead of netprofmsvc.dll.
Audio issue fixed easily too, as you described.
Once those where straight, a reboot, and all was good. Big Thanks! Would’ve never have found those!!
Josh, I’m having the same problem as everyone else in this thread. I clicked on your downloads but they just appeared as code… I have zero knowledge of where to even type this in. Are the links to download broken… I could really use your help…. Thanks, Rich
Rich, try right clicking on the download link and look for Save As or Save Link As. The file should download as a .REG file. If you still have problems then open them as you did before to see the code. Then open Notepad on your computer. Copy and paste my code into Notepad and then save the file to your desktop as “whatever-name-you-want.reg” with quotes – – Windows will remove the quotes in the file name, but using quotes prevents Notepad from saving the file as name.reg.txt and giving the wrong extension. After you have done that, just double click on the new .REG file that you saved.
Hope that will help you out.
Thank You Josh! Worked like a charm!
Suffered both these problems for months.There appeared to be no workable solution other than a system refresh, losing everything. I finally found your website. Absolutely brilliant, worked perfectly. Thank you so much.
Dude your awesome
You have no idea how you helped people worldwide. I’m from South America. Really thank you, thank you, thank you. This both tricks saved my life after days searching for solutions. Google should consider putting your blog as first result for “God” search.
Also i’ll add another problem solved with this (you may add it to this entry if you consider).
The fixed computer belongs to my daughter (13). She bought a Sims 4 (Maxis Game) license with her own savings and installed Origin (game engine), necessary to run it.
Everything worked fine until a massive windows updates installation. After that we experienced the same sintoms described here and also Origin didn’t start anymore!
It looked like starting for a few seconds, but no window opened and the classic icon at the notification area of the task bar didn’t appear. Despite this the task appeared as running in the task manager window.
After your fix, Origin and The Sims came back to life.
Believe there is a lot of people, mostly desperate parents, looking for this solution for Origin. Sites should be cross linked.
One last thing. I didn’t find any Donate link in this site. Please PUT IT RIGHT NOW! Getting back my daughter’s happy face is priceless.
Thanks, Leo, for your kind words. I never imagined that this post would get as popular as it has. I also had never even considered offering a donation option, but I would like to start gathering some money to go towards replacing my servers. I have taken your advice and there is now a Paypal Donate button just below the search box on the top right menu of my site.
Thanks for visiting and glad my post has been of use.
Josh
Bro!
I’ve never done this before, but this time- clap, clap, clap…. big up! Thanx a lot
YOU JUST SAVED MY HIDE!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I spent three hours on the phone yesterday with Adobe Customer Support (Wonderful people, btw) trying to get my Adobe Illustrator to launch. Today I tried to go into the Control Panel to check my Java and CP just sat and spun on a blank window.
After some google-fu, I found your website and I did the manual RegEdit suggested above, and now EVERYTHING works SO MUCH BETTER! I waited 15 minutes for my computer to restart yesterday, multiple times – that’s fixed. My Adobe Illustrator is running, and my Control Panel opens. BRAVO, and THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!!!
Thanks a lot for this solution
Method 2 (Manual)
Open regedit.exe
Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\netprofm\Parameters
Check the value of ServiceDLL, it should be exactly as follows:
%SYSTEMROOT32%\System32\netprofmsvc.dll (See update note below)
%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\netprofmsvc.dll
Now everythink works,