Crashing sessions on Win2003 Terminal Services

[Bj?rnar B.]

Hello,

We have a serious problem with user sessions frequently crashing
on of our Win2003 TS setups. The symptoms are: locked screen,
"reconnecting box" and then a login window. Any app or document in
writing is lost, just as if it were a fresh login.

All clients are WinXP Pro with the latest RDP client and normal
local printer redirection.

We suspect this is a printer issue as it happens randomly on different
setups, network types, company and locations, and in some cases several
users go down simoultaneously while other times only individual users
are affected.

The eventlog shows up pretty scarse, with only printers purging/deleting
at the time of the incident.

BTW, how does one set up more thorough eventlogging on Win2003?


This got substantially worse after we added some new users and
Color LJ 3500 and LJ 2300 printerdrivers to the system.

We've tried upgrading to the latest drivers and run Office 2003 SP1
to no vail.

Any tip is -greatly- appreciated.



Regards...

 

[Guest]

Are the users local or are the connecting over a internet connection (VPN,
WAN IP, Etc.) Also how long has this been happening? Is this a new server
that has an Intel NIC Pro MT 1000?

Chris

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

I think you have already identified a likely source of the
problem: 3th party printer drivers.
Many of those are not TS-compatible and crash your print spooler
or the whole server.

The recommended practice is to uninstall all 3th party printer
drivers and map printers to a native driver on the server, by
creating a custom ntprintsubs.inf file.

Details here (for both W2K and 2003):

239088 - Windows 2000 Terminal Services Server Logs Events 1111,
1105, and 1106
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=239088

 

[Bj?rnar B.]

Connection is ADSL in most cases.
It's been a problem for about three weeks, worsend when we installed 6 new
users with new color laserjet printers.

NIC is Intel Pro/1000 CT.


Regards...

 

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Did you install any 3th party printer drivers on the server?
Many of those are not TS-compatible and can creash your spooler
service or the server.

The remedy is to uninstall all 3th party drivers and instead map
the printers to a native driver, by creating a custom
ntprintsubs.inf file.
Details here:

239088 - Windows 2000 Terminal Services Server Logs Events 1111,
1105, and 1106
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=239088

 

[Bj?rnar B.]

Hello Vera,

Well since the addition of the LJ2300, 2550 and 1150 drivers,
and doubleing the userbase, the problem worsend substantially.

I removed the 1150 driver yesterday, as it wasn't certified for
TS2003 by HP, but I just got feedback from a user which experienced
another crash today.

All other HP printerdrivers I have here are certified according to HP.


I also have a couple of other 3rd party drivers, such as an OKI5100C,
but it has been installed since day-1 and doesn't seem to have caused
any trouble. I've also been unable to find another driver substitute
for it that works, so far, or else I would swap it out.

The .inf solution is interesting, but it would mean customizing the
server, complicating setup, documentation etc. which I try my very best
not to do. Easier to change the local drivers on the client in my case,
as it's only about a dozen clients all in all.

Thank you for your feedback.



Regards...