XCON: MTA Fails to Start with 9405 Error Message

 Last reviewed: October 29, 1997
Article ID: Q154337
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Exchange Server, version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

The Microsoft Exchange message transfer agent (MTA) fails to start. The following error message appears in the event log. 

   Error 9405 Source: MSExchangeMTA
   Field Engineering
   Description:
   An unexpected error has occurred which may cause the MTA to terminate
   Error: Base-MS Not initialised-Error=3909, Parm1=0,Parm2=0 [BASE MAIN
   BASE 1] (16).

   Event id: 9405
   Description: An unexpected error has occurred which may cause the MTA to
   terminate
   Error: Fatal severity error - 3909 {BASE MAIN BASE 1] (16).
When you attempt to run MTAcheck.exe from the Exchsrvr\bin subdirectory, the same error is reported. 

   Base-MS Not initialised-Error=3909,Parm1=0,Parm2=0
   Fatal severity error - 3909.

MORE INFORMATION

When the Microsoft Exchange MTA initializes it checks all the files in the \Exchsrvr\Mtadata subdirectory. The error message is reported when the files required to initialize the MTA are missing or corrupted. 3909 means "NO BASE RECORD IN SCT". These files can be sct.inp or .tpl files or other files in the Mtadata subdirectory (except the .dat files).

RESOLUTION

Replace the corrupted files from the Microsoft Exchange compact disc. It is safe to copy all the files to the MTADATA subdirectory except the .dat files. The files can be copied from the Exchange compact disc from the \Setup\I386\Mtadata subdirectory, OR from the Exchsrvr\Mtadata subdirectory of another server with a functional MTA.

Additional query words: SP2 mta crash down server
Keywords : XCON kbusage
Version : 4.0 5.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kberrmsg

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Last reviewed: October 29, 1997
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