What does HRESULT 0x80040278 (VFW_E_DVD_NO_BUTTON) mean?

Status / error code:

Category:

Constant name:

Source:

Facility:

Operating System:

Description:

The specified button is invalid or is not present at the current time, or there is no button.

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VFW_E_DVD_INVALIDDOMAIN	VFW_E_DVD_GRAPHNOTREADY

VFW_E_DVD_NO_BUTTON

Exact result and bit fields

VFW_E_DVD_NO_BUTTON has the unsigned HRESULT value 2147746424 (0x80040278) and the signed 32-bit representation -2147220872. AllStat describes it as “The specified button is invalid or is not present at the current time, or there is no button present at the specified location”. In the operation that produces this result, the application selects or activates a menu button that is absent, invalid, or not available at the specified screen position.

The high bit is set, so this value is a failure HRESULT. Its facility field is 4 (FACILITY_ITF) and its low code is 632 (0x0278). These fields classify this result, but they do not identify which filter, thread, device, file or graph generation returned it.

Conditions that can produce it

Cause 1 for this HRESULT: the menu has no buttons.
Cause 2 for this HRESULT: the numeric button index is outside the current menu.
Cause 3 for this HRESULT: coordinates refer to a stale layout after a menu change.

Contract boundary

This result belongs to the legacy DirectShow DVD Navigator contract. DVD state is authored and stateful: domains, user-operation controls, titles, menus, streams, command objects and graph construction each impose different preconditions.

The practical owner to locate for this HRESULT is the DVD Navigator, graph builder, decoder inventory and renderer topology. When handling this result, capture the native result before a wrapper replaces it with a generic exception, and keep the graph generation or object identity with the record.

Step-by-step diagnosis

Capture it at the first native return, not only at the top-level playback failure.
identify the exact graph stage described here: the application selects or activates a menu button that is absent, invalid, or not available at the specified screen position.
compare the live object state, topology and input with the documented interface preconditions.
Before changing filters, drivers, registry data or media for this HRESULT, collect the code-specific evidence below.
Test one evidence-backed the correction on the smallest reproducible graph.
Verify that the corrected run no longer returns it and does not merely replace it with a nearby HRESULT.

Evidence worth preserving

Log the interface and method, filter CLSID and friendly name, process and thread, graph state, connected pin names, media-type summary, renderer or device identity where relevant, and the first preceding HRESULT. Record lengths and hashes instead of raw content when the incident includes disc identifiers, navigation state, parental settings and media paths.

Evidence 1 for this HRESULT: current domain, menu and button count.
Evidence 2 for this HRESULT: selected button number or activation coordinates.
Evidence 3 for this HRESULT: EC_DVD_BUTTON_CHANGE and menu-transition events.

Correction strategy

Action 1 for this HRESULT: query current button availability before enabling input.
Action 2 for this HRESULT: discard cached coordinates after every menu or aspect change.
Action 3 for this HRESULT: handle buttonless menus without treating them as playback failure.

Example incident

A mouse click arrives just after the DVD changes menus and uses the old highlight rectangles; refreshing them on EC_DVD_BUTTON_CHANGE avoids it. This example keeps the diagnosis at the specific the boundary instead of treating every DirectShow failure as a codec reinstall problem.

Retry and recovery

Retry rule for this HRESULT: Retry after a menu with valid buttons is active or after refreshing the button map. A safe it retry must use a changed capability, state, object generation or input. While recovering from it, preserve cancellation and avoid replaying side effects when the original operation may have partially completed.

How it differs from nearby results

VFW_E_DVD_MENU_DOES_NOT_EXIST means the requested menu itself is absent; it means the active context lacks the requested button. Keep those cases separate in telemetry, UI messages and retry policy because their next actions are different.

Implementation notes

Code that handles it should preserve the original HRESULT, the failed stage and an opaque correlation identifier. After it, do not infer success from partial graph construction, and do not continue using interfaces retained from a graph or device generation that has already changed.

Operational remediation for this HRESULT should favor supported component installation, device configuration and documented DirectShow calls. Manual registry or driver changes are appropriate only when the collected evidence for this HRESULT points to that layer and a rollback is available.

Official Microsoft references

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