Remote Windows XP Freezes

[Rich Raffenetti]

I am starting a new thread on this issue. I have observed many other
threads on this issue with no solution except possibly "reinstall" which I
regard as maybe temporary since my remote system was a fresh install.
Moreover, the system did not exhibit the condition for at least a year
following the install. So what is the cause?

Briefly, when remote accessing an XP machine, the system connects but
quickly the user interface freezes. This behavior never is seen when
accessing the machine locally.

As an IT professional, I really want this capability to work and work well.
As machines get updated to Windows XP, I would like to recommend that
persons working from home use their work computer, relieving the staff of
maintaining software on home machines. With this condition, I cannot
recommend it!

The behavior that I see is that after logging in, the remote system almost
immediately slows down and will not accept input. The mouse pointer moves
around easily and quickly. Characters typed into a cmd window appear when
the mouse is moved to the start bar. After a disconnect and reconnect, both
of which occur easily/quickly, the machine freezes again. When I get the
task manager started, the performance tab displays essentially an idle
machine. The task manager does have a jerky display, pausing for seconds
while no updates are observed.

The following is a numbered list of facts which I associate with my own
situation. I would be interested to have others post to this thread and
expressing agreement or disagreement with the list items by numbers. (For
example, my experience agrees with all items except #n and #m.) I hope to
establish a better characterization of the problem. I also hope to garner
more attention for this problem.

My list:

1. Remotely accessed Windows XP freezes, allowing little input to the
system.

2. The mouse moves quickly and easily.

3. Characters in a command window appear when the mouse moves to the start
bar.

4. If the mouse doesn't move, the characters never (10 min. or more) appear.

4. "Dragged" windows move when the mouse moves to the start bar.

5. The behavior is the same with the RDP Web connection (TSWEB) client.

6. A reboot of the remote Windows XP clears up the problem for a time (two
days).

7. Neither a logout or disconnect of the session has any effect.

8. Performance in task manager shows an idle system with an intermittent
graphics display.

9. The remote session gets NO time slice until the mouse moves to the start
bar.

10. Behavior exists with or without VPN, firewall, etc.

11. Behavior exists in both upgrades and fresh installs of WXP.

12. Never observe the aberrant behavior with a local login.

13. In my case, the problem recurs two days after the reboot (tomorrow will
be the fourth time).

14. My machine runs Office, Visio, Visual Studio, Outlook, VB6 apps, SMS,
Backup Exec agent, FrontPage, ...

15. We have less experience but no bad experience with remote Windows 2003
server behavior.

16. All remote systems described are in a Windows 2000 domain, native mode.

17. Client workstations are both in and out of the domain of the remote
system.

18. RDP clients consist of Windows XP and Windows 98.

19. Logon or reconnection to a remote session is always quick.

20. No screen saver on remote or local system.

21. Remote Windows 2000 server never behaves this way.

22. I use Cisco VPN, Comcast cable ISP, from home.

23. At work there is a Cisco firewall.

24. No XP firewalls are enabled.

25. My remote XP system is a 933 MHz Gateway box w/100 Mbit networking.

I will be happy to expand on any of these items in case further explanation
is needed.

 

[Brian Roberson]

Rich,

I am experiencing the exact symptoms you describe. I will agree with all
your items and add that we use a Cisco VPN3030 to connect remotely. From
home I use Comcast high speed internet to connect into work. We use all
cisco equipment.

The problem indeed clears up for a couple days after rebooting the target
system. All problems seem to be remotely into XP machines. I don't know
that I've seen the problem when going into 2003 machines.

As you said, local remote works fine all of the time - only remote/vpn RDP
sessions exhibit this behavior!

Brian Roberson

 

[Eric Robert]

Hi,

Didn't see your posts at first so I posted the exact same problem. It seems
to me that this is a power saving issue. Just look at Messenger if you can.
You are staying "Away" since there are no keyboard or mouse input...

I tried to access my workstation from my home and I have to call someone to
login on my computer so that it goes out of power saving mode and I don't
get this behaviour anymore. You could reboot. It solves the problem until it
enter sleeping mode.

If there is a way to wake-up the computer somehow, it could resolve the
problem.

 

[Guest]

This may just be an 'urban legend', but I have heard that
broadband ISPs hinder remote connections such as this
because their services are sold only as consumer Internet
access and they offer alternate services that are
more 'business-class' but cost more.

 

[Eric Robert]

I forgot to say that if you log on with VNC first, it will get out of the
power saving mode. Then, you can connect with remote desktop for better
performance.

But if you're like me, my workstation is behind a firewall and I can't get
to it with VNC since most ports are blocked...

HTH

 

[Brian Roberson]

Eric,

The sounds like bunk - my desktop doesn't have any power-saver features
turned on. I suppose I could install PCAW or VNC, but RDP is much faster.

Brian

 

[Brian Roberson]

Maybe, but how could they affect traffic being wrapped in a VPN tunnel?
This theory doesn't seem to make sense. Plus, we have a XP machine we RDP
that is on the public internet and we never have trouble with that one.
Just over a VPN broadband connection with XP...

Brian

 

[Rich Raffenetti]

I have observed the freeze behavior in a situation where there was no VPN
and no firewall. This was between two XP machines at work on different
subnets. No VPN, no firewall. No doubt about it. I believe the problem is
on the remote machine, not in the network! This was my item #10.

 

[Rich Raffenetti]

This note describes a new experience regarding the hanging/freezing problem:

During the recent holidays I was able to determine that exactly two days
after the reboot I encountered the hang condition. During that time I did
not go to the office and did not logon to the remote machine locally.

After the holidays I found that the condition was different because I logged
in locally. On the first day before I left for the office I logged into the
remote machine from home and found that it was exhibiting the hang
condition. I decided to leave it that way and logged out.

When I got to the office I logged in locally and, as before, I found no
hanging behavior. After the day I returned home and logged in remotely.
The machine still had not been rebooted. To my surprise, the remote machine
did not exhibit the hang/freezing condition.

This happened for several days so it seemed like the hang/freezing condition
was somehow removed or eased by logging in locally to the machine. This
explains why before the holidays I thought that I could go for a week before
the hang condition while during the holidays it happened every two days -
while I did not log in locally.

Logging in locally definitely changes the behavior.

 

[Rich Raffenetti]

I had a chance today to check the hang/freeze condition from a terminal
server client at work - that is, with no VPN or firewall between the client
machine and my office XP machine. I have stated that I had that experience
in the past, although it was months ago.

Today I experienced the same condition and was able to observe many of the
same characteristics (I did not check them all). I was in a computer room
at our organization and accessing my office XP system. The condition
definitely, positively, is not related to our VPN or firewall!

 

[Rob Walker]

Go into the Display properties, click Settings, Advanced,
Troubleshoot, then lower the Hardware Acceleration
slidebar. Lowering it one notch cleared up the problem
for me. I'm working remotely without a problem since.

Rob

 

[Rich Raffenetti]

Rob,
Is this on the remote machine or on the local rdp client?

 

[Jeffrey Randow (MVP)]

Per his prior post, on the remote/server computer.

Jeffrey Randow (Windows Net. & Smart Display MVP)
(e-mail address removed)

Please post all responses to the newsgroups for the benefit
of all USENET users. Messages sent via email may or may not
be answered depending on time availability....

Remote Networking Technology Support Site -
http://www.remotenetworktechnology.com
Smart Display Support - http://www.smartdisplays.net
Windows XP Expert Zone - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone

 

[Rich Raffenetti]

I am sad to report that the hardware acceleration proposal posted here did
not fix the problem.

My officemate, for whom the problem is always present, reports that neither
moving the hardware acceleration slider one notch to the left nor moving it
all the way to the left made the problem go away.

Still looking for a solution!

 

[DB]

I am having the same issues. Remote XP machine hangs
just after logging in... When you log on locally, there
are no issues.

If I log into the machine (locally), then try a remote
connection, it works...

The issue is sporadic, and not always on the same
machines.

Have not tried the reboot scenario.. (Schedule a daily
reboot? sounds ridiculous).

Have you found the answer to this issue??

I have 25 machines (lab) for people to remote control and
test their apps on XP. They were all built with the same
scripted image process.
All have automated scripts for adding appropriate rights
for RDC.
The behavior is NOT on all machines... Sporadic. Which
would allow me to believe that this issue "returns" after
the two day post reboot as you described.

But... the machine that was hanging this mornign, now
works after I logged in locally..

???

Any answers out there?

 

[Rich Raffenetti]

Your experiences are much the same as I have observed and documented in
previous postings. It is not a consistent problem. Some machines have it
and apparently some do not. I am in the habit of leaving my office machine
running with the screen locked. Many people logout. Not a large number of
people using XP remotely I suspect. Not many will if this problem persists!
I can't recommend it to people who are not geeks like me.

Interesting that you found the problem went away after logging in locally.
I noticed the same thing.

Band-aids such as scheduling reboots may help the immediate problem but I
was hoping that enough postings would appear on this thread that we could
get the vendor involved and solve the real problem. I guess not enough
people are watching. If you are out there - please add your voices. We
need momentum on this issue!

If I had an answer I would certainly post it. We have chased a number of
wild geese. Classic vs. native explorer interface. Hardware acceleration
settings. Neither of them was an answer. Never have had this happen with
Windows 2000 server or Windows 2003 server in administrative mode.
Something about XP... :-(

 

[Dave]

We are having the same issues. It is very frustrating.
The one computer it seems to happening the most on is
someone who likes to use is most everyday. We have tried
altering any setting we could think of, but no luck!

Dave

 

[Tom]

I started a thread on this issue back on December 15 and a few posted to
that. Then this thread got going and has had much more response - so, I
would like to add my "voice" to this in the hopes we can get somebody -
anybody - involved to the degree that the problem gets solved!
My main frustration is that it was working fine on my old machine, but I
"upgraded" and installed XP and now have nothing but trouble. I have tried
all the possibilities posted here plus a few of my own - e.g. chaning RAM,
downloading different video drivers, etc., but alas nothing has worked.
Sometimes I can work for 5 or even 10 minutes, other times it hangs right
away. When it does hang, and I have to log back in after a 10 minute or so
wait period, the problem does seem to be
exasperated, i.e. it happens much more frequently - I only get a couple of
minutes of work time before hanging.

This is CRAZY!!

I hope someone comes along to help us all.

Tom

 

[Scott]

I just want to chime in here - unfortunately without a solution - just
to let you know that we too are experiencing the same issues!! Over
the corporate network, vpn, terminal server client, remote web
connection - it just doesn't seem to matter! 1 in every 10 (or so)
connections is plagued with this ridiculous performance issue -
excruciatingly slow mouse response, start menu launch, typing, etc. I
too have posted a bunch of threads, by now just to find others who are
experiencing this issue. Up until now, I was thinking that I was just
nuts and missing something (not that I have ruled out my own sanity,
but at least now I see that others are in the same boat as I!). I have
seen some posts that loosely describe this issue, and that the only
remedy is to resort to a 3rd party app/winsock 2 (with inherent
expense) or wait for a fix in Longhorn (2006?).

I feel your pain ...

Scott

 

[Scott]

Guys,

I've got it!! Call Microsoft (if you have Premiere support) - Q811080
fixes this! I was getting this at least twice a week (if not more),
but after getting the fix (which is NOT available on the site), all of
the issues have gone away.

Ask for it by name - it works!