Red "X" over Mapped Drive Icon

[Oscar Vogel]

When a user starts his PC, logs on and then double-clicks on "My Computer",
the icons for his mapped network drives have a red "X" on them. When he
clicks on any of the icons he's able to browse the mapped network drive and
the "X" disappears for that particular drive.

Why is he seeing the "X"?

(My guess is it means that a session isn't created until he actually clicks
on the icon. But why do we see that only on his PC? Does it have anything to
do with the fact that he logs on locally, while everyone else logs onto the
domain? If so what difference does that make? He's got a lot of mapped drive
(approx 10 or 12). Could that have anything to do with anything?)

Thanks!

 

[Steve Parry [MVP]]

When a user starts his PC, logs on and then double-clicks on "My
Computer", the icons for his mapped network drives have a red "X" on
them. When he clicks on any of the icons he's able to browse the mapped
network drive and the "X" disappears for that particular drive.


(My guess is it means that a session isn't created until he actually
clicks on the icon. But why do we see that only on his PC? Does it have
anything to do with the fact that he logs on locally, while everyone else
logs onto the domain? If so what difference does that make? He's got a
lot of mapped drive (approx 10 or 12). Could that have anything to do
with anything?)
Thanks!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/138365/EN-US/

 

[Mark R. Blain]

When a user starts his PC, logs on and then double-clicks on "My Computer",
the icons for his mapped network drives have a red "X" on them. When he
clicks on any of the icons he's able to browse the mapped network drive and
the "X" disappears for that particular drive.

Why is he seeing the "X"?

(My guess is it means that a session isn't created until he actually clicks
on the icon. But why do we see that only on his PC? Does it have anything to
do with the fact that he logs on locally, while everyone else logs onto the
domain? If so what difference does that make? He's got a lot of mapped drive
(approx 10 or 12). Could that have anything to do with anything?)

I had to look this up myself a few months ago.

The explanation, and solutions if you require them, are at:
"Mapped Drive Connection to Network Share May Be Lost"
<http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=297684>

 

[Oscar Vogel]

I've read 138365 & 297684, so I understand how the server disconnects the
session after a certain amount of inactivity.

But I don't know why I only actually see the red "X" on that one user's PC.

I'm sure I would have noticed it on the others.

Do you think that somehow there's less activity if the user doesn't log onto
the domain, which causes the disconnect? Or other way around, it there some
extra activity from that a machine that's logged onto the domain, which
would explain why the other's never see the X?

Thank for the help but I'm still missing something.

Thanks.

 

[Bob I]

We used to observe that "visual phenomena" occasionally on Win2000
clients. Have not noticed it happening on XP. We finally just ignored it
as it was not actually a connection issue.

 

[John John]

Go to chicagotech.net and search the site for "red x" and you should get
an explanation or fix for the (minor) annoyance. My guess is that
"persistent" connections are the cause.

John