It has been discovered that SketchUp fails to close a COM-Surrogate (DLLHost) on exit. This leads to several previously reported problems, such as file-locking and folder-locking issues. The DLLHost in-question can be seen in the Task-Manager (Details-Tab). In the Details-Tab, the problem DLLHost can be identified as associated with the specific user and is referred to as “COM-Surrogate” in description. A Temporary-Fix: On SketchUp exit, stop the specific DLLHost (as identified above) with the Task-Manager; this will also stop the cited problems. If the user is operating in a “Standard” account the user will only be able to stop “COM-Surrogate” launched under the user account; System DLLHost’s are protected.
Good info. It may actually have to do with Windows 7, rather than the Sketchup program though. It can be checked pretty easily. Com-Surrogate is just a pretty name for dllhost.exe. You may want to make sure your Direct X is working properly. If it is, try one of the following:
Method 1:
- Click Start, type cmd, right-click and select Run as administrator.
- Run the following commands:
regsvr32 vbscript.dll
regsvr32 jscript.dll
Method 2:
Turn off DEP or Add Exception
Another way to possible solve this problem is to turn off DEP or Data Execution Prevention. You can do this in Windows 7 by right-clicking on My Computer, choosing Properties, and clicking Advanced system settings.
strong text
dllhost.exe error
Click on the Advanced tab and then click on*Settings under the Performance section.
Finally, click on Data Execution Prevention and click on Turn on DEP for all programs except those I select and add dllhost.exe to the list.
turn off dep
Windows 7 is notorious for the Comm-Surrogate errors (whether the service stops working or refuses to stop working). Long and short, it may very well be a bug with Sketchup, or it may actually be a problem with Windows 7 (or how Windows 7 talks to Sketchup). Either way, good info, and an easy work around.
Cheers,
~~Drew
This problem only occurs with SketchUp and is responsible for all the file-lockup issues reported by many others; not likely a Windows issue. As mention in my original post it is an instance of DLLHost.
I’m running SketchUp in Windows 8.1. COM-Surrogates are sometimes used to isolate questionable software from the main application to preserve it if a failure occurs.
I would really like to hear from one of the SketchUp developers regarding this issue.