win2k3 fax server locking up?

[tNS]

I am programmatically submitting faxes over the local network to a
Windows 2003 Server equipped with (2) US Robotics 56K USB Fax/Modems.

The system performs fine for a while, but this morning, after a failed
fax (no answer -- event ID 32013), the fax service seems to lock up
entirely. Faxes can still be sent (programmatically) to the outbound
queue, but when I attempt to view the queue via the Fax Console, the
status bar reads "Refreshing..." and just sits there with no faxes
displayed.

Side-effect: I cannot log out of the remote desktop connection to the
fax server. It reached the point of "Saving your settings..." and has
been stuck there for over an hour. I can disconnect the session, but
any attempt to reconnect takes me back to the same session and the
"Saving your settings..." dialog. I was able to see the
"Refreshing..." phenomenon via another computer on the network with the
shared fax defined.

I came across an earlier thread that appeared to be related ("Fax
Service not responding on Windows Server 2003" - Anthony Williams -
2005-02-09) that received attention from a member of the Microsoft
Printing, Imaging and Fax Team (Raghavendra R), but a fix or workaround
was never discussed.

Last time the fax server stopped sending, we rebooted the server and
were able to send again. Obviously, rebooting every few hours is not a
viable solution.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks-
Tim

 

[Raghavendra R [MSFT]]

If there is no way to access the machine when this situation occurs there is
very little we can do. But if you are at least able to run some commands
give me the following information.

1. What's the state of 'Fax' service? Run 'sc query Fax' on command line or
go to Services in Control Panel
2. See if there are any event log entries

In any case you should be able to stop & start Fax Service instead of
stopping & starting the entire machine.

--
Raghavendra R
Microsoft Printing, Imaging and Fax Team
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Please do not send email directly to this alias. This alias is for newsgroup
purposes only.'

 

[tNS]

Thanks, Raghavendra. During this 'down time', the Fax service was in
the 'Starting...' state, and I could not Start, Stop or Pause it.

The server was rebooted this morning (it is located at a client's site,
so my hands were tied until one of their IT staff could do a hard
reboot). According to the event log, 8 faxes failed to be sent with
Event ID 32010 (busy signal and # of retries exceeded) shortly after
the server came back up. The Fax Console shows 0 faxes currently in
the Outbox (outbound queue), though approximately 14 more faxes were
submitted yesterday before the problem occurred. The event log
messages for the 8 failures all show the same modem (#1), so I suppose
that the other 14 might have been sent successfully on modem #2. I
will try to find out whether or not that was the case.

In another thread where I was reading that someone else experienced the
same behavior with the Fax service, I noticed that they were also using
a US Robotics 56K USB fax/modem. Are there known issues with these
modems and the Fax Server?

I also came across Event ID 1002 -- Hanging application fxsclnt.exe,
version 5.2.2581.0, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address
0x00000000 -- that occurred late yesterday, probably during one of my
attempts to stop the Fax service.

Please let me know if I can provide any further information. And
thanks again for your help.

-Tim

 

[Raghavendra R [MSFT]]

Please give the full details of all Fax Modems on the machine.

--
Raghavendra R
Microsoft Printing, Imaging and Fax Team
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Please do not send email directly to this alias. This alias is for newsgroup
purposes only.'

 

[tNS]

I think we may be on to something here. Ha.

In Device Manager, I can view the properties for Faxmodem #2, but
Device Manager locks up when I attempt to view the properties for
Faxmodem #1. Perhaps my client has a bad modem? As I mentioned
earlier, they are both US Robotics 56K USB Faxmodems.

Since it appears that modem #1 might be the root cause of the issues, I
would love to give you driver information, etc. for that modem, but
until the server is rebooted again (we will try to do this during the
client's lunch hour today), I will not be able to access the property
pages for #1.

Going on the assumption that the two modems were configured
identically, however, here are is what I can get for modem #2:

Driver Provider: U.S. Robotics
Driver Date: 7/14/2004
Driver Version: 173.45.0.0 (not signed)
Driver Files:
hxfsetup.exe [Conexant Systems, Inc. - v3.0.6.0 (not signed)]
mdmxsdk.sys [Conexant - v1.0.2.006 (not signed)]
modem.sys [Microsoft - v5.2.3790.0 srv03_rtm.030324-2048]
winacusb.sys [U.S. Robotics - v173.045.000.000 (not signed)]
hsfinst.dll [Conexant Systems - v5.03.00.00 (not signed)]
mdmxsdk.dll [Conexant - v1.0.2.006 (not signed)]
usr00ec.cty [Unknown - version unknown]
Port: COM4
Diagnostics/Modem Info/Hardware ID: USB\Vid_0baf&Pid_00ec&Rev_0001

-Tim

 

[tNS]

Since my last post, we have:

(1) disconnected USB modem #1 from the server and run all day with only
USB modem #2 connected (no problems)

(2) connected a US Robotics 33.6 Sportster external serial faxmodem in
addition to USB modem #2. in this scenario, we sent several faxes
successfully, but then USB modem #2 got stuck with a status of
"Dialing" on an attempt to resend a fax that failed on no answer (event
ID 32013). while USB modem #2 was stuck, the 33.6 modem continued to
send outbound faxes. after about 20 minutes of that fax being stuck in
the "Dialing" status, I attempted to cancel it from the Fax Console,
but nothing happened. I then tried to stop the Fax service from the
Fax Service Manager with no feedback that it was successful. After
closing the Fax Service Manager and returning to it a few minutes
later, the green start arrow button was available, so I tried to start
the Fax service again by clicking it. The Services mmc console
reported that the Fax service was in the Starting state, but it was not
capable of sending any faxes.

We have removed the 33.6 Sportster again, rebooted, and are back to
using only USB modem #2. Faxes have resumed and are being sent
successfully. However, the client would like to take advantage of the
Windows Fax Server's ability to manage more than 1 fax device if at all
possible.

Thanks-
Tim

 

[tNS]

Update:

Approximately 15 minutes after faxing was resumed, the service locked
up again. This time, only the aforementioned USB modem #2 was present
and being utilized, so that rules out the possibility that the problem
occurs only when 2 modems are present.

Tim

 

[Raghavendra R [MSFT]]

Looking at the case I tend to believe the problem is with modem. By the
way do you have SP1 installed on the machine?

To confirm the problem with modem we got to do the following
Change the modem make and/or make sure the one you are using is on HCL
for Windows Server 2003. The list is at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ca...gory&pgn=7f37b376-bf1f-4880-a973-7a6a513bb573

In the worst case we should enable verbose logging on the machine which
requires changing system registry. If you are intersted, our MVP Mr.
Russ Valentine will send you the instructions & you can route the log
files back to us through Russ. But I am positive the problem is either
with the modem or the drivers (why are they not signed by the way?) for
the modem.

In any case go to Fax Service Manager > Properties > Event Reports &
select the highest event tracking level for all categories. This will
give more reports for us to understand the situation better.

--
Raghavendra R
Microsoft Printing, Imaging and Fax Team
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
Please do not send email directly to this alias. This alias is for
newsgroup
purposes only.'

 

[tNS]

According to the Windows Server Catalog that you directed me to, only 1
US Robotics modem (56K Performance Pro) has been certified compatible
for Windows Server 2003. This is not the modem the client is using.

I had already increased the event tracking from the Fax Service
manager. I do not know why the drivers that the client installed are
not signed.

I am definitely interested in enabling verbose logging. Are you going
to draw Mr. Valentine's attention to this thread?

I read that the US Robotics external USB faxmdem is a "soft modem"
(winmodem), which offloads controller functionality (error correction,
data compression, etc.) to software to lessen the cost of manufacturing
the modem. If this is the case with my client's modem, could an
increased load on the server cause the Fax service to lock up? Perhaps
if I could somehow monitor server activity during one of these
failures...

-Tim

 

[Raghavendra R [MSFT]]

I mailed Russ & waiting for his response. By the way do you have SP1
installed?

--
Raghavendra R
Microsoft Printing, Imaging and Fax Team
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Please do not send email directly to this alias. This alias is for newsgroup
purposes only.'

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Ummm, I replied to you straightaway. You did not provide me with an email
address nor with which logging instructions you wanted me to send. Check
your gmail account.

 

[Raghavendra R [MSFT]]

I gave Russ the required information. Tim please provide your email address.

--
Raghavendra R
Microsoft Printing, Imaging and Fax Team
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Please do not send email directly to this alias. This alias is for newsgroup
purposes only.'

Ummm, I replied to you straightaway. You did not provide me with an email
address nor with which logging instructions you wanted me to send. Check
your gmail account.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I mailed Russ & waiting for his response. By the way do you have SP1
installed?

--
Raghavendra R
Microsoft Printing, Imaging and Fax Team
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
Please do not send email directly to this alias. This alias is for
newsgroup purposes only.'

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

His email address is not valid. He'll need to email a valid address that can
accept attachments to me.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I gave Russ the required information. Tim please provide your email
address.

--
Raghavendra R
Microsoft Printing, Imaging and Fax Team
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
Please do not send email directly to this alias. This alias is for
newsgroup purposes only.'

Ummm, I replied to you straightaway. You did not provide me with an email
address nor with which logging instructions you wanted me to send. Check
your gmail account.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I mailed Russ & waiting for his response. By the way do you have SP1
installed?

--
Raghavendra R
Microsoft Printing, Imaging and Fax Team
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
Please do not send email directly to this alias. This alias is for
newsgroup purposes only.'

According to the Windows Server Catalog that you directed me to, only 1
US Robotics modem (56K Performance Pro) has been certified compatible
for Windows Server 2003. This is not the modem the client is using.

I had already increased the event tracking from the Fax Service
manager. I do not know why the drivers that the client installed are
not signed.

I am definitely interested in enabling verbose logging. Are you going
to draw Mr. Valentine's attention to this thread?

I read that the US Robotics external USB faxmdem is a "soft modem"
(winmodem), which offloads controller functionality (error correction,
data compression, etc.) to software to lessen the cost of manufacturing
the modem. If this is the case with my client's modem, could an
increased load on the server cause the Fax service to lock up? Perhaps
if I could somehow monitor server activity during one of these
failures...

-Tim

 

[tNS]

I mailed Russ & waiting for his response. By the way do you have SP1
installed?

Raghavendra-

No, the client has not installed SP1 on the fax server.

-Tim