diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 95d246888b..c80c97f78e 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+2004-06-16  Benjamin Otte  <in7y118@public.uni-hamburg.de>
+
+	* gst/gstelementfactory.c: (gst_element_factory_create):
+	  make the freakin "elementfactory bla has no type" message more
+	  useful. So we actually can do something when someone shows up
+	  complaining about it.
+
 2004-06-15  Johan Dahlin  <johan@gnome.org>
 
 	* tools/gst-inspect.c (main): Fallback to plugin if no element is
@@ -81,7 +88,7 @@
 2004-06-12  Steve Lhomme  <steve.lhomme@free.fr>
 
 	* win32/config.h:
-    * gst/gst-i18n-app.h:
+	* gst/gst-i18n-app.h:
           enable NLS under Windows
 
 2004-06-12  Jan Schmidt  <thaytan@mad.scientist.com>
diff --git a/gst/gstelementfactory.c b/gst/gstelementfactory.c
index 857e1091a2..64305e66a1 100644
--- a/gst/gstelementfactory.c
+++ b/gst/gstelementfactory.c
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 #include "gstregistrypool.h"
 #include "gstinfo.h"
 #include "gsturi.h"
+#include "registries/gstxmlregistry.h"  /* g_critical in gst_element_factory_create */
 
 GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_STATIC (element_factory_debug);
 #define GST_CAT_DEFAULT element_factory_debug
@@ -283,8 +284,14 @@ gst_element_factory_create (GstElementFactory * factory, const gchar * name)
     GST_INFO ("creating \"%s\"", GST_PLUGIN_FEATURE_NAME (factory));
 
   if (factory->type == 0) {
-    g_critical ("Factory for `%s' has no type",
-        GST_PLUGIN_FEATURE_NAME (factory));
+    GstPlugin *plugin = GST_PLUGIN_FEATURE (factory)->manager;
+
+    g_critical
+        ("Factory for `%s' has no type. This probably means the plugin wasn't found because the registry is broken. The plugin GStreamer was looking for is named '%s' and is expected in file '%s'. The registry for this plugin is located at '%s'",
+        GST_PLUGIN_FEATURE_NAME (factory),
+        gst_plugin_get_name (plugin), gst_plugin_get_filename (plugin),
+        GST_IS_XML_REGISTRY (plugin->manager) ? GST_XML_REGISTRY (plugin->
+            manager)->location : "Unknown");
     return NULL;
   }