Troubleshooting

General trouble shooting

Since you've come to this page, you probably have some sort of problem with your Terminal Server. Without knowing any details, it's still possible to give some general advice:

1. check the EventLog on your server.
   More often then not, there is useful information to be found there
2. search one or more of the databases mentioned below for the EventID and Source of the events you found
3. if at all possible, create a test system which demonstrates the same problem and do all of your troubleshooting there
4. document the problem
5. enable verbose logging of relevant services, if possible (see links below)
6. if the server reboots, configure it to not automatically restart after a system failure. Document the STOP error code and all parameters when the system crashes
7. try to narrow down the problem: does it happen all the time? to all users? with all workstations / applications / printers?
   You will need to provide this information if you are going to post your problem to a newsgroup or phone a vendor's support
8. document all changes that you make while troubleshooting
9. make only one change at a time, evaluate the results, and reverse the change if it doesn't solve the problem

Troubleshooting tools

KnowledgeBase

• Microsoft Support Knowledge Base for 2008 / 2003 / W2K / SBS 2003 / Vista / XP
• MSDN Advanced Search
• Citrix Solutions Knowledge Base
• Citrites' Search - for all thing Citrix

Event Logging

• Terminal Services Events in Windows Server 2008
• EventID.Net - real-world examples of most events
• EventTracker KB - Event database, searchable on description
• Events and Errors Message Center
• 889887 - How to copy the text of an error message into a text editor
• 325376 - How To Enable Verbose Startup, Shutdown, Logon, and Logoff Status Messages in the Windows Server 2003 Family
• 232575 - How to trace Winlogon activity in Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows NT
• 221833 - How to enable user environment debug logging in retail builds of Windows
• Interpreting Userenv log files
• 907355 - How to enable folder redirection logging to gather verbose troubleshooting information in Windows 2000
• 223300 - How to Enable Windows Installer Logging
• 327508 - How to Turn On the Terminal Services Session Directory Logging Service - 2003

Debugging tools

• System Error Codes
• MSDN Bug Check Codes - explanation of STOP error parameters
• DLL Help Database - track fileversion to Microsoft software packages
• Troubleshoot a Windows bluescreen, a.k.a bugcheck, a.k.a blue screen of death
• 244139 - Windows feature lets you generate a memory dump file by using the keyboard
• 949180 - How to create a user-mode process dump file in Windows Server 2008
• 900093 - How to enable a remote kernel debugger connection on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1
• 286350 - How to use ADPlus to troubleshoot "hangs" and "crashes"
• Download the User Mode Process Dumper - version 8.1.2929.5
• 936917 - The Userdump monitoring function is disabled when Windows Server 2003 SP2 is installed
• Download the Debug Diagnostic Tool v1.1 - troubleshoot hangs, slow performance, memory leaks or fragmentation, and crashes in any Win32 user-mode process
• Download the IIS Diagnostics Toolkit (x86) - see CTX108889 for usage on TS and Citrix servers
• CTX108889 - Using the Microsoft Debug Diagnostics Tool to Create Dump Files
• CTX114179 - TSUserLog
• 323478 - You cannot debug through a Terminal Server session

General TS related issues

• 278657 - Terminal Services Cannot Be Manipulated - applies to W2K and 2003, not 2008
• 238162 - Change Between Remote Administration and Application Server Mode - W2K
• 252330 - Toggling Terminal Services to Application Server Mode May Cause Programs Not to Work - W2K
• 828056 - A terminal server no longer runs in application mode after you upgrade the terminal server to Windows Small Business Server 2003

Windows 2008 specific issues

• 952610 - You cannot investigate a Stop error that occurs on an x64-based version of Windows Server 2008
• 953341 - A dump file may not be generated on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista if the dump file and the paging file reside on the same volume
• 952664 - The Event Log service may stop responding because of a deadlock on a Windows Server 2008-based computer
• 946399 - The Terminal Services service may be unable to start on a server that is running Windows Server 2008
• 951954 - Error message when you run an application on a terminal server that is running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista with Service Pack 1: "Stop 0x0000008E"
• 950086 - A memory leak may occur in the nonpaged pool memory on the Windows Server 2008-based terminal server when you log on to and log off from a Windows Server 2008-based terminal server through an RDP connection
• 949914 - Citrix ICA clients may crash when they are connecting to a Windows Server 2008-based terminal server that has Citrix Presentation Server installed

Windows 2003 specific issues

• 824721 - Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 list of updates
• 914962 - List of updates in Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2

STOP errors

• 909445 - Error message when you start a Terminal Services session on a Windows Server 2003-based computer: "STOP: 0x00000050 (0xffffffe8, 0x00000001, 0x8083fb88, 0x00000000)"
• 926128 - You receive a "STOP 0x50" error message that is related to win32k!HmgDecrementShareReferenceCount+0xb on a Windows Server 2003-based terminal server
• 951749 - Stop error message on a terminal server that is running Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 or Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2: "Stop 0x000000AB (SESSION_HAS_VALID_POOL_ON_EXIT)" replaces all previous STOP 0xAB hotfixes

Misc. problems

• 883670 - FIX: The Terminal Services service stops responding in Windows Server 2003 and you receive an "The RPC service is unavailable" error message when you try to connect to the terminal server by using the Remote Desktop Connection program
• 930045 - A Windows Server 2003-based computer stops responding when you shut down the computer in a remote console session
• 906510 - The logon screen turns black after you press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to log on to a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based computer
• 932039 - Two taskbars are displayed, or the Language bar is displayed two or more times on the taskbar, on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP
• 914052 - Event ID 10000 is logged in the Application log on a Windows Server 2003-based computer that has Terminal Server enabled
• 932813 - Event ID number 2003 is logged in the Application log after you install Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2
• 891315 - You cannot see all the screen element text if you use the large size (120 DPI) display DPI setting on a Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server
• 942490 - When you connect to a Windows Server 2003-based computer in a terminal server session, the remote computer may stop responding if it has East Asian languages installed

Windows 2000 specific issues

STOP errors

• 839429 - You receive a "STOP: 0x0000001E" error message on a Windows 2000-based computer that is running Terminal Services
• 899268 - You may receive error messages and you may receive frequent Stop error messages that indicate that the Srv.sys or the Netbt.sys driver has failed when you use Terminal Services to connect to a computer that is running Windows 2000 Server
• 901198 - Error message when you use the Terminal Server application on a computer that is running Windows 2000: “Stop 1E, {c0000005, a0109ba0, 0, a0cd3584}”
• 894388 - Error message on a Windows 2000 Server-based computer that has Terminal Services enabled: "Stop 0x0000001E"
• 820767 - Your computer automatically restarts or a stop error or another error occurs when you have Terminal Services enabled

Misc. problems

• 817446 - Terminal Services Stops Responding
• 323148 - Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2000 Advanced Server Computer That Is Running Terminal Services Stops Responding Immediately After You Start the Computer
• 899330 - A Windows 2000-based terminal server stops responding under a heavy load, and all users lose their terminal server sessions
• 823747 - Windows 2000 Terminal Server Stops Responding and a Black Screen Appears
• 837439 - Windows 2000 Terminal Server stops responding after you experience access violations in a Terminal Server session
• 832821 - Error 161 occurs when you use the runas command in a Terminal Services session
• 830268 - NUM LOCK and CAPS LOCK keys are out of sync when you shadow another RDP session in Windows 2000
• 893368 - Terminal services and remote desktop session events are not logged in Windows 2000 Server
• 891503 - FIX: You may receive a "Permission Denied" error message when you try to use the ls or cd command from a Terminal Services session
• 837810 - When you use Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) to connect to a Windows 2000-based terminal server, you cannot minimize a program that has stopped responding in the RDC window

Citrix specific issues

• CTX106727 - Brief Troubleshooting Guide
• CTX113035 - Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Known Issues
• CTX104982 - Issues Resolved in Service Pack 4 for Citrix MetaFrame XP 1.0
• CTX102026 - STOP 0x1E in Ntkrnlmp.exe when running the Citrix Management Console from FR3 with an ATI display driver
• CTX103253 - IMA service failed to start with error 2147483649 and failed to load plug-ins MF XP 1.0
• 816134 - Citrix Terminal Server Sessions Are Not Disconnected and Cause the Server to Stop Responding
• CTX106802 - Presentation Server 4.0 and Service Pack 2005.04 for MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0 Cannot Be Installed on a Domain Controller
• 951032 - You may receive an error message on a Windows Server 2003-based computer that has Citrix Presentation Server 4.0 installed with Windows Installer
• 951033 - Stop error message on a Windows Server 2003-based computer that has Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 installed: "0x00000076" or "0x000000CB"