When trying to access the Shared Service Provider (SSP) I received the following generic error:
An unexpected error has occurred.
Yes, the detail is overwhelming and pointed me directly at the problem.
To allow the .aspx page to show the detail behind the error I had to make a small change to the web.config file. In my case the web.config file in question was located in the following location:
C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\7788
How did I know where this was located? If you are in Central Administration and hover over the name of your SSP with your mouse, you should see the path at the bottom of the browser windows. If not, right click and select Copy Shortcut and paste it into notepad.
Example:
The 7788 pointed me to the folder that contained the web.config I needed to edit.
Once you have located the needed web.config file make a copy of it. Open the original web.config file and make these two changes.
<SafeMode CallStack=”true“>
<customErrors mode=”Off” />
Save the file.
The page should now show you what is wrong with the file. In my case, there were a ton of “?” all over my web.config. How they got there I will never know.