30-Second Fix: Password Sync with Service Account
Nine times out of ten, this error pops up because someone changed a service account password but didn't update it in the COM+ application. You changed the domain account password yesterday? There's your culprit.
- Open Component Services (run
dcomcnfgas admin). - Navigate to Component Services > Computers > My Computer > COM+ Applications.
- Find the app throwing the error. Right-click it > Properties.
- Go to the Identity tab.
- Re-enter the password for the account listed in This user.
- Click OK. If you get a "password is valid" popup, you're done.
Still broken? Move to the next fix. Don't bother restarting the COM+ app yet — it won't help unless you fix the creds first.
5-Minute Fix: Full Credential Update via Component Services
Sometimes the COM+ app has multiple identity settings or the password didn't sync properly. Do a clean reset:
- In the Identity tab, switch to Interactive user (this is the logged-on user). Click Apply.
- Switch back to This user. Enter the correct domain\username and password. Apply again.
- Go to the Advanced tab in the same properties window. Check Disable deletion and Disable changes if you want, but not required. Click OK.
- Right-click the COM+ app > Shut down. Then right-click > Start.
Pro tip: If the app is a COM+ SOAP service or uses a domain account with a long name, watch for special characters. The COM+ admin console doesn't always handle $ or @ well. Use a simple alphanumeric password if you can.
15+ Minute Fix: Reset the Account and Reconfigure
If the two quick fixes didn't work, the account itself might be locked, disabled, or its password hash is corrupted in Windows. Here's the nuclear option:
- Confirm the account's status in Active Directory Users and Computers (or local SAM):
- Is the account enabled?
- Does it have Password never expires checked? (Don't do this for domain service accounts that rotate passwords — it breaks compliance.)
- Check Account is locked out. If so, unlock it.
- Reset the password on the domain controller. Use a strong but simple string like
Reset123!(rename the account after testing). - Back on the COM+ server, open a command prompt as admin and run:
net stop comsysapp
net start comsysapp
This restarts the COM+ system application. It's not the same as restarting the COM+ service — it's the underlying infrastructure that holds identity info.
- Now go back to Component Services, update the password as before. Shut down and restart the app.
- Still failing? Delete the COM+ application completely (right-click > Delete). Recreate it from scratch using the original installer or export. That wipes any cached credential corruption.
I've seen this error on Windows Server 2016 and 2019 mostly. Windows Server 2012 R2 also has it, but the fix is identical. Not common on Windows 10/11 unless you're running COM+ apps locally for dev testing.
Why This Happens (and What to Avoid)
The error ID (0x80110414) maps to COMADMIN_E_USERPASSWDNOTVALID — the COM+ runtime can't authenticate the identity account when starting the application. This happens when:
- The password was changed on the domain but not updated in COM+ (most common).
- The account was disabled or expired between app restarts.
- The COM+ application configuration got corrupted after a Windows update (rare, but I've seen it after KB5008380 on Server 2019).
- The account has restrictive logon hours that don't match the COM+ activation times.
Don't waste time checking the event log for this one — it'll show the same error under System > DistributedCOM or Application logs, but it won't tell you more than the error message already does. Focus on the account and the identity settings.
One more thing: If you're running the COM+ app under Network Service or LOCAL SYSTEM and you're sure the password isn't the issue, check if the COM+ app's DLL is compiled for 32-bit on a 64-bit system. That gives a different error (0x8011042D usually), but I've seen it misreported. Not your case here, but keep it in the back of your mind.