BITS Windows XP Error 1290: 0x50a

by Nov 15, 2013

When you try to start the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) on Windows XP you get an error 1290: 0x50a.

Step 1:
Reregister the Qmgr.dll and the Qmgrprxy.dll BITS files. To do this, follow these steps:
Click Start, click Run, type regsvr32 qmgr.dll, and then click OK two times.
Click Start, click Run, type regsvr32 qmgrprxy.dll, and then click OK two times.
Restart the computer.

Step 2:
Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
At the command prompt, type the following command, and then click OK:
%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %windir%\inf\qmgr.inf
Note: If you are prompted to insert the operating system CD, type %windir%\ServicePackFiles\i386 in the Copy files from box, and then click OK.
Restart the computer.
UPDATE: Just completed this step on a computer that had an empty C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386 directory. I copied that directory from another XP computer that had SP3 installed. As some have noted in the comments they had to use their XP SP3 CD.

Step 3:
Manually start BITS. To do this, follow these steps:
Click Start, click Run, type services.msc, and then click OK.
Double-click Background Intelligent Transfer Service.
In the Service status area, click Start.
If BITS does not start successfully, continue to step 4. (At this point your error will probably be 2 rather thanĀ 1290: 0x50a)

Step 4:
Click Start, click Run, type the following command, and then click OK:
Reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BITS\Parameters /v ServiceDll /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d %windir%\System32\qmgr.dll
Restart the computer.

Step 5:
Try to manually start BITS.

Note: Set the BITS Startup type to “Automatic” instead of “Manual” as soon as you resolve this problem. To change the Startup type, follow these steps:
a.Click Start, click Run, type services.msc, and then click OK.
b.Double-click Background Intelligent Transfer Service.
c.In the Startup type box, click Automatic, and then click OK.

This information was sourced from Microsoft Article ID: 916251