I was trying to access the SharePoint server but my IE simply could not connect.  So time to check out the server.

The application log was full of red lights.  Error 6482 and 7076 filled the log for every other minute.  Not good.

Googling on 7076 got me a couple of hotfixes.  Ok lets try, the error description looks similar, but the hotfix won’t install. Hmmm.   The Control Panel says there are two versions of .Net framework installed.

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    Office SharePoint Server
Event Category:    Office Server Shared Services
Event ID:    7076
Computer:    SharePt
Description:
An exception occurred while executing the Application Server Administration job.

Message: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.

Techinal Support Details:
System.AccessViolationException: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.

I took out .Net Framework 3.0 and the number error events dropped.  Now for the 6482.  Sounds like a permission error.

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    Office SharePoint Server
Event Category:    Office Server Shared Services
Event ID:    6482
User:        N/A
Computer:    SharePt
Description:
Application Server Administration job failed for service instance Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance (83c7b7e8-9f1a-4398-8a8f-5beecdf2fb9c).

Reason: Access to the path ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS’ is denied.

Add WSS_WADMIN_WPG local group to change permssion to Hosts file and that clean up abit.  Reboot and it looks good.