Unknown option Dialog Keeps Popping Up

Hi All,

I'm using Windows 10 OS build 19044.2006

This morning, I got an alert saying a new version of Samsung Magician was available. I installed it and within minutes, this dialog popped up:



I decided that if it was going to cause problems, I really didn't need Samsung Magician, so I uninstalled it. But the dialog keeps on popping up.

I had a similar problem with a persistent dialog before which involved the Windows Script Host, but unfortunately I didn't document the fix and I don't recall where I got the fix, either, so I don't know if this new problem can be dealt with the same way or not.

I tried Googling the string from the dialog—in its entirety and a bit at a time—but got zero results.

Can anyone shed light on this for me, please?

Thanks.

dalchina said:

Hi, you could determine the process that's associated with by using e.g. Winspy++ (free, Google).

Thanks, dalchina.

I tried WinSpy++, but it didn't give me much to go on. However, generalizing from your suggestion, I also tried Process Explorer and according to it, the process responsible is MsiDb.exe and it suppplied a PID.

I then looked that up using Task Manager and found it under the Details tab. I right-clicked and did an "End task," but it popped up again a few minutes later with a new PID.

Process Explorer has three options that may help, but I'm not sure which I should try:
- Kill Process,
- Kill Process Tree, or
- Suspend.

Any recommendations before I go down this rabbit hole?

My best guess is that something's gone wrong with the MSI installer database. Perhaps Samsung Magician didn't leave it in a reasonable state when it exited?

- - - Updated - - -

As an experiment, in Process Explorer I tried Restart from the context menu. I got this dialog in response:

dalchina said:

Hmm, well, just looking up the process =>
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/wi.../msi/msidb-exe

- which suggests to me it's being triggered by something else- no surprise there.

dalchina said:

It looks as if you have something installed which has added this to your system, and perhaps is not fully uninstalled- just a guess.

I'm pretty sure it's got something to do with the update and subsequent uninstall of Samsung Magician. That's the only change I made this morning before this started.

dalchina said:

However - I don't have msiDb.exe on my PC.
You might find out where it is on disk, though not sure that will help.

I found it in \AppData\Local\.IdentityService.

dalchina said:

What hopefully would help would be to view the process tree- and determine the parent.

Any idea how I'd go about tracing it?

dalchina said:

You could also see if you still have this happening after a clean boot (Google or see tutorial if unsure). If not, you can work back from there.

It does survive a cold reboot.

dalchina said:

(By the way, Process Explorer also has a target (top right) which you can drag over a window to identify its process..)

Yup. I've been working with that.

Uninstall whatever was installed and download the latest version from Samsung Magician Software Download | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Magician does show information from a website within the tool. It is more of a resource hog than anything useful. It like the HP, Dell and other OEM tools really do not need to be installed.

rontarrant said:

I tried WinSpy++, but it didn't give me much to go on. However, generalizing from your suggestion, I also tried Process Explorer and according to it, the process responsible is MsiDb.exe and it suppplied a PID.

rontarrant said:

My best guess is that something's gone wrong with the MSI installer database.

Process Explorer has identified the process but not the events leading up to it triggering the popup. For that I think you'll have to use Process Monitor (ProcMon), add a filter for the MsiDb.exe process (a, b, c in screenshot) and, when found, look at events (especially FAILUREs) just prior to the popup appearing.



See Understanding Process Monitor (and the followup lesson) and The Ultimate Guide to Procmon for more info.

The only thing that confuses me is that MsiDb.exe is apparently installed as part of a Microsoft SDK or Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate... which is why I don't have it installed on my system.

Hope this helps...

Well, thanks for all the help, guys. I tried a bunch of different methods, but nothing worked. Out of desperation, I deleted AppData\Roaming\MsiDb.exe and it's now been about 15 minutes with no recurrence of the pop-up and nothing else has complained about not being able to run MsiDb.exe.

I was concerned that this desperate move might have affected the list of installed software, but so far, everything's fine. If anything else comes up because of deleting this, I'll replace it and come back for round two.

Again, thanks so much for all the advice!