Slow login problems SP4

[Robert Meyers]

Since updatin to SP4 I am having a problem, primarily on terminal but
not exclusivly, that my workstations and sessions are taking up to
five minutes to login. There are no errors being logged. CPU is
pegging while this occurs.

Windows 2000
Service Pack 4
Sysytems have been on SP2 or SP3 and running for sometimes over a
year.

Not effecting XP machines.

Help!

 

[Colin M. McGroarty]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324446

MS KB article Q324446 will help with the slow logins on the servers. You
will have to call MS Support to get the fix. There should be no charge
associated with the call since it is a known SP4 issue.

Hope this helps,

--
Colin M. McGroarty
MCP+I, MCSE, NT-CIP

(e-mail address removed)
www.McGroarty.org

 

[Robert Meyers]

It is not only the servers though I will contact Microsoft for this hotfix.

 

[Jason Donahue]

Hmm...324446 seems to address momentary lag increases that
occur when someone logs on or off, but that actually
affect someone who's already logged on.

While we have experience that issue to varying degrees in
the past, and continue to do so, what we currently have
going on is something new, that's started since we loaded
SP4 on our terminal servers and domain controllers.

Specifically, the user will connect to the terminal
server, enter their username and password, and click OK.
They then get the "loading your settings" and
the "applying your settings" messages, followed by a blank
blue screen, with a mouse cursor. It will then take
between 60 and 120 seconds to load exlorer, where you have
your usual desktop items, start menu bar, etc.

This problem, while primarily affecting terminal users
running the latest RDP client, also affects some users
trying to log in to their workstations. One user's
computer, in fact, never finishes loading, and remains on
the aforementioned screen. Meanwhile, the workstation's
local admin works fine, as do most domain admins - adding
the user to the domain admin group, and adding her domain
account to the local admin group did not address this
issue.

--Jason Donahue
(e-mail address removed)
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Colin M. McGroarty]

After applying SP4 there were numerous issues that occurred with my servers.
324446 resolved issues including:

Slow logins
TS sessions not being released by the server
Other resources not being released by the server
Loss of ability to use TS Manager
Server Instability
Extremely long reboot cycles

The fix is supposed to be part of SP5 per MS Tech Support. I suspect that
the fix would also work on a workstation, but not having tried that I would
suggest verifying that with MS when you call them to get the fix.

Hope this helps,

--
Colin M. McGroarty
MCP+I, MCSE, NT-CIP

(e-mail address removed)
www.McGroarty.org

 

[Keith Duckworth]

I apologize, but this is incorrect.

I installed SP4 on my Win2k servers, and also got the
Terminal client slowdown problem. So, I tried to install
KB324446, and got an error message stating that I have a
newer version of the files, and that this install is for
SP3 only. The executable for 324446 had the executable
named "q324446_W2K_SP4_X86_EN.exe".

So, the question is: "Now what do I do?" I need to fix
this slow down of my terminal services login and session
lockups, but I have no solution. Help, help!

Keith Duckworth
MCSE, CCNA

 

[Colin M. McGroarty]

Keith,

Did you receive the fix directly form Microsoft? Also, just to verify, are
we talking about Win 2K server or workstation?

When I received the fix from Microsoft in July it was named
Windows2000-KB324446-x86-ENU.exe.

The fix contains two files. The files referred to earlier is the actual
fix, the symbols file will create a directory which holds copies of all the
updated files. I would expand the symbols file and compare the file
versions to make sure that you do indeed have the updated files on your
server. I also encountered an issue on some servers where the fix did not
take the first time, I think this is due to resources that the system was
not releasing as a result of SP4 being applied. However, I received no
error messages during that process. So, I would make sure to do a reboot
immediately prior to applying the fix in order to ensure a clean install of
the fix. The fix does also require that a reboot be done immediately after
it is applied. After being applied the fix should also be listed in
Add/Remove Programs as "Windows 2000 Hotfix - KB324446"

It may be possible that MS has added the fix to SP4 since the original
rollout due to the large number of TS servers that had issues. If that is
the case, however, I'm unaware of it.

I would double check the above. If you are still experiencing issues I
would be happy to help you further troubleshoot the matter. Lastly, so you
are aware that it is an option, rolling back to SP3 will also solve the
issue. This requires that you have archived the previous configuration
during the SP4 install. If you re-install SP4 DO NOT select to archive
files as that will then overwrite the existing SP3 archive. If you roll
back to SP3 the only extra step is that the password will have to be
re-entered for any scheduled tasks

Hope this helps,

--
Colin M. McGroarty
MCP+I, MCSE, NT-CIP

(e-mail address removed)
www.McGroarty.org

 

[Louis]

I installed this fix and still have issues with TS
manager. It can take up to 5 minutes for the client
connections to appear, and once they do, the option for
remote control is grayed out on all of them. I also had
some new printing issues for clients who print to their
local printers. Reinstalling the drivers on the server
seems to fix this.

You mention that this fix didn't take the first time on
some of your servers. How did you reapply it? Did you
uninstall the fix, then reapply it?

Louis Ciavarella