It seems that Dell is shipping broken windows installs again. Just like that time when they shipped machines with corrupted Flash libraries which would somehow cause Windows Update to fail. This time their Latitudes boot to a lovely error:
tcsd_win32.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close
If you google for that file, you will see that everyone has the same fucking problem, but no one has a solution. After mucking around for a little bit here are my findings:
- The full name of this process is NTRU Hybrid TSS v1.05 TCSD
- NTRU Cryptosystems, Inc is a company that produces cryptographic tools – and among them Trusted Computing Platform tools
- New Dell Latidude D630 laptops apparently have a functional TCP chip
- Hence they also ship with Embassy Trust Suite by Wave
- Which, apparently, uses NRU Hybrid TSS for it’s internal operation
Mystery solved! The error is caused by (surprise, surprise) a TCP software module. LOL TCP! Not only that shit is not working, but is also crashing at startup. Good job! And thank you Dell for installing this crap on the new laptops.
Anyway, here is the quick workaround:
- Go to Control Panel
- Go to Add-Remove Programs
- Click on Dell Embassy Trust Suite and and hit Remove
- Choose Remove again from the installation menu
- Wait 15 minutes while Embassy Installer is doing all kinds of weird shit to your system
- Reboot
- WTF? Embassy Suite is still listed under Add-Remove Programs???
- But you didn’t get the tcsd_win32.exe error, didn’t you? So leave it alone.
- ???
- Profit
If someone can think of a better workaround, please let me know. This is all I was able to do over the phone, on a Crossloop link with the user crying that I sent her a b0rked computer.
[tags]tcsd_win32.exe, tcsd_win32.exe error, NTRU Hybrid TSS v1.05 TCSD, ntru, embassy trust suite, wave, trusted computing, tcp[/tags]
God, I wish I would get point 8 through my thick skull. There is a time and place for doing things correctly, but most of the time just getting it working is most important. If things appear to be working, don’t mess with them – I’m particularly looking at you, Windows Update Optional Drivers.
Almost every time I’ve gone ‘well, since I’m here updating anyway, I may as well get the suggested newer (x) drivers’ > ‘why is (x) no longer working?’ > extra pain if (x) happens to be the network card. I’ve had a NIC break from an optional update on a newly-installed XP SP2 machine, on which is was found by default and working already. Arg!
Oh, no I usually never touch the driver updates. I actually rarely go to Windows Update at all. I have it set to retrieve and install updates automatically when I sleep. I really can’t be bothered with this crap. :P
I have found that this error “tcsd_win32.exe has encountered a problem” appeared after I had installed office 2003 on a brand new dell precision M65 laptop. When I uninstalled google desktop, the error went away! On the next laptop I setup (I am an IT Admin) I will try doing the updates for ms office 2003 to see if that makes any difference. Im not sure whether the issue is with office, good desktop or a combination of the two.
Well, the good news is that I never encountered this issue again in the recent Dell laptops that we have bought. :)
Unfortunately, have had two in two days, but then again, I am in the UK, you know how far behind we are, we are probably just receiving the stock from August!
I have a DELL D620, same build for about a year and the only thing that has changed recently that I am aware of is accepting default windows update this week. Now have TCSD_win32 error so I guess it is connected to the windows update.
Fresh Install on Intel DQ35JO – with Trusted Platform module – which is linked to the Embassy Security Suite – whixh uses the tscd_win32,exe encrypting technology. Had system ready to install at client. Booted one more time to check before delivery – WHAM! – Broke the network connection, broke the Trend Micro, wouldn’t boot on first attempt – had to go into safe mode. Some kind of serious error that was unrecoverable and am now re-installing from scratch.
Went through horrendous problems trying to install it, having not first enabled it BIOS. Don’t know if it was related to this or a conflict with an XP update that broke it. I was using the latest Embassy Suite software download from INtel and had updated BIOS previous to this.
Although the idea of this software is good, the dangers of using it – which result in this error – plus the very real possibility of getting data back off the hard drive after a catastrophic failure (like having to replace the motherboard that contains this unique to each motherboard security chip) makes it all too problematic to be useable.
@RT – trusted computing is a very, very bad, sinister idea. In the most basic terms it is essentially like a hardware level DRM for your own data. Also it kills kittens and puppies.
I like puppies so I won’t be trying to implement this anymore!!
Just had a single, then a batch of 4 latitude D630c come in, first one popped up “tcsd_win32.exe has encountered a problem” after a office 2003 install, now the second one is doing it out of the box, as well as dropping the drivers for the network card ! is there any quality control left in this world. These are 2008 machines !
It’s a Palm Software Issue, all this information is wrong
@tecky: It was a brand new laptop from Dell. No Palm software was installed (unless Dell pre-installed it for some weird reason). No palm devices were used with that machine, or were to be used.
Un-installing the Embassy Suite resolved the problem. How could this be Palm?
How about checking to see if your antivirus software is blocking it from running.
It is a part of the Google desktop
Most likely it is your firewall blocking it, check internet applications and you will see that the exe for the program is set to block, allow full access and the problem goes away. Had the same problem on a Dell D630 on a fresh install.
loved this post… so pertinent on so many levels…. fixed my problem and thanks for the giggles!