WinCC Activation Stuck at Alarm Logging 69%: Troubleshooting

Problem Description

On a single-station Siemens IPC with preinstalled PCS 7 V7.0, the WinCC V6.2 SP2 Runtime activation sequence halts at two specific milestones:

• Alarm Logging progress bar stops at 69% and never advances.
• If Alarm Logging is forced past, the activation halts at Initialize Archive Management (5%).

The WinCC Explorer process becomes unresponsive. Only terminating CCExplorer.exe through Windows Task Manager (End Process Tree) releases the workstation. Until the underlying issue is resolved, the only functional workaround is to uncheck Alarm Logging and Tag Logging in the WinCC Explorer Computer → Properties → Startup list. This disables long-term archiving and is unacceptable for production operation.

The same project copied to a second identical Siemens IPC single-station activates without incident, confirming the fault is local to the affected machine (database, file system, or component registration), not the project database itself.

Affected Versions and Components

Root Cause Analysis

WinCC Runtime stores alarm messages, tag logging archives, and user archives in a Microsoft SQL Server / MSDE database engine. When WinCC Explorer activates Runtime, it issues sequential startup commands to the following Windows services in this order:

1. CCAlgLoggingServer.exe — Alarm Logging service
2. CCArchiveServer.exe — Tag Logging / Archive service
3. CCSysdiag.exe — System diagnostics
4. CCMessageService.exe — Message service

If the underlying database engine cannot be initialized, the Alarm Logging service blocks on the database open call (this is what produces the 69% progress stall). When Alarm Logging is bypassed, the Archive service then stalls on its database open at the 5% mark — the same root cause exposed through a different component.

The five most common root causes for this fault, in order of frequency on field-deployed systems:

1. Damaged SQL/MSDE master or tempdb database on the local IPC (typical after uncontrolled shutdown, power loss, or disk-full condition).
2. WinCC V6.2 SP2 component corruption — missing or unregistered DLLs/OCXs used by Alarm Logging (notably CCAlgLoggingServer.dll, CmAlgDB.dll).
3. Insufficient disk space on the drive hosting the WinCC project path (default C:\Program Files\Siemens\WinCC\WinCCProjects\<project>) and/or the archive partition.
4. NTFS permissions or share conflicts on the project folder after a project copy or restore from image.
5. Missing WinCC V6.2 Hotfix 5 / Patch 3 — a known Siemens-distributed fix for the 69% alarm-logging stall.

Pre-Diagnostic Checklist

Before applying the corrective procedures below, capture the following data points. They are required when escalating to Siemens Technical Support and shorten triage time significantly.

Solution 1 — Verify and Repair the Underlying Database Engine

The Alarm Logging database CC_ALG_<ProjectName>_<Timestamp>.LDF/.MDF lives under <ProjectPath>\<ComputerName>\<ProjectName>\ALG. The Tag Logging archive database lives under <ProjectPath>\<ComputerName>\<ProjectName>\ArchiveManager\TagLogging.

1. Stop all WinCC services:

   net stop "CCAlgLoggingServer"
   net stop "CCArchiveServer"
   net stop "CCAgent"
   net stop "CCMessageService"
   net stop "CCSysdiag"
   net stop "SQL Server (WINCC)"

2. Open an elevated command prompt and run an MSDE / SQL Express integrity check on each WinCC database:

   osql -E -S \\<ComputerName>\WINCC
   1> EXEC sp_dboption 'CC_ALG_<ProjectName>', 'single user', true
   2> DBCC CHECKDB('CC_ALG_<ProjectName>', REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS)
   3> EXEC sp_dboption 'CC_ALG_<ProjectName>', 'single user', false
   4> GO

3. Repeat for CC_TL_<ProjectName> and CC_US_<ProjectName>.
4. Restart the services in reverse order.

If DBCC CHECKDB reports allocation or consistency errors, the repair step usually clears the 69% stall. If REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS reports unrepairable corruption, escalate to a clean database re-import (Solution 3).

Solution 2 — Apply WinCC V6.2 Hotfix 5 / Patch 3

Siemens released a targeted fix pack (sometimes referenced as “Patch 3 CD” or “WinCC V6.2 Hotfix 5”) that addresses the 69% alarm-logging stall on preinstalled Siemens IPC images. Confirm hotfix presence and install order:

1. From Start → Settings → Control Panel → Add/Remove Programs, confirm SIMATIC WinCC V6.2 Hotfix 5 (or higher) is listed. If absent, source the installer from your local Siemens representative or the Siemens Support entry Entry ID: 21528075.
2. Stop all WinCC services and close WinCC Explorer.
3. Insert the Hotfix CD (or mount the ISO). The installer registers and replaces CCAlgLoggingServer.dll, CmAlgDB.dll, and related COM components.
4. Run the installer with administrator credentials. A reboot is required at the end of installation.
5. After reboot, open the project and verify Help → About now reports Hotfix 5 installed.

Test activation. If the 69% stall persists, the hotfix did not resolve the fault because a database corruption (Solution 1) or component conflict (Solution 4) is masking it.

Solution 3 — Re-create the Project Using Project Duplicator

When the project was copied manually across IPCs and the secondary machine activates cleanly while the primary does not, the file system on the primary carries stale COM registrations, .dll locking, or ACL differences. The Siemens Project Duplicator rewrites the project path and re-registers COM components during the copy.

1. On the healthy second IPC, close WinCC Explorer.
2. Launch Start → All Programs → SIMATIC → WinCC → Tools → Project Duplicator.
3. Click Open, browse to the source project .mcp, and click Open.
4. Click Save As… and select a new project name and a fresh target path on the primary IPC's project drive.
5. Confirm Copy with reorganization is checked. This forces WinCC to rebuild the internal project database, alarm logging database skeleton, and archive path mappings.
6. On the primary IPC, transfer the duplicated project folder via the network share or external media. Do not restore from a Windows image ghost created before the hotfix install — the image will reintroduce the fault.
7. Open the project on the primary IPC, confirm the computer name in WinCC Explorer → Computer matches the local hostname, and activate Runtime.

Solution 4 — Validate File System, Permissions, and COM Registration

1. Open dcomcnfg → Component Services → Computers → My Computer → DCOM Config. Confirm CCAlgLoggingServer and CCArchiveServer are listed. If they are missing, re-register them:

   cd /d "C:\Program Files\Siemens\WinCC\bin"
   regsvr32 CCAlgLoggingServer.dll
   regsvr32 CCArchiveServer.dll
   regsvr32 CmAlgDB.dll

2. Right-click the project folder → Properties → Security. The local SIMATIC HMI user group must have Modify rights; the SYSTEM account must have Full Control.
3. Confirm the project drive is NTFS (not FAT32) and that folder compression is disabled on the project tree. NTFS compression on .MDF/.LDF files causes the database engine to deadlock.
4. Open Computer Management → System Tools → Local Users and Groups → Groups. The SIMATIC HMI group must contain the user account under which WinCC services run (typically CCServiceUser or SYSTEM on a single-station).
5. Clear any pre-existing WinCC process locks by running sc delete "CCAlgLoggingServer" — then restart the IPC and re-install Hotfix 5 (Solution 2) to recreate the service registration cleanly.

Solution 5 — Restore from a Known-Good Siemens IPC Image

If the IPC was delivered with a preinstalled Siemens WinCC image (common on IPC547C and IPC847C), restore the manufacturer image only after applying Hotfix 5 first on the restored image, then deploying the project with Project Duplicator. Restoring the bare image without re-applying Hotfix 5 reintroduces the 69% stall on activation.

1. Boot from the Siemens Recovery USB / DVD delivered with the IPC.
2. Restore the default C: partition image.
3. On first boot, do not open WinCC. Install WinCC V6.2 Hotfix 5 first.
4. Reboot, then deploy the project using Project Duplicator (Solution 3).
5. Activate Runtime and verify alarm and tag logging come up cleanly.

Verification Procedure

1. Open WinCC Explorer → Computer → Properties → Startup. Confirm both Alarm Logging and Tag Logging are checked.
2. Right-click Computer → Activate.
3. Watch the activation log: progress should pass 69% (Alarm Logging) and 5% (Archive Manager) within 30 seconds for projects under 100,000 configured tags.
4. Open WinCC Alarm Control and trigger a test alarm. Confirm the alarm appears, is acknowledged, and clears correctly.
5. Open Tag Logging Runtime and confirm the configured swap time fires (default 1 day). Check <Project>\ArchiveManager\TagLogging\<Tag>.dat for new files.
6. Run DBCC CHECKDB on all three WinCC databases once more to confirm zero allocation errors.

Troubleshooting Matrix

Preventive Measures

• Schedule a weekly DBCC CHECKDB on all WinCC databases via SQL Server Agent or a scheduled osql script.
• Configure UPS protection on every WinCC single-station IPC to prevent uncontrolled shutdowns.
• Reserve a minimum 20% free-space margin on the project and archive drives; integrate a low-disk SNMP trap into WinCC.
• Track hotfix installation in the station's WinCC Change Log and re-verify hotfix presence after every image restore.
• Use the Siemens Project Duplicator for all project moves — never Windows file copy across IPCs.

FAQ