Sunday, 17 March 2013

Windows 8 Remote Desktop Connections crashing

I've had this "bug" on my work PC since Windows 8 RTM, whereby logging into a Remote Desktop Server would crash that Remote Desktop session, and only that session after a the login completed. And ONLY on Remote Desktop servers. Normal PC, SBS and standard server RDC's were fine.

I'd had enough now and wanted a solution so started thinking about what exactly is going on, let's break it down a bit - with bullet points ! I love bullet points...

  • It would only happen once the login completed.
  • I had all Windows updates installed.
  • No real pointers to what the problem may be.

Not a lot to go on, huh?

The next logical step was to change the RDC and by that I mean the various options it come with.
Well it turns out I hit the nail on the head, first time!

I simply unchecked the Printers option under Local Resources, saved the RDP file and connected to the RD server which was 2008 R2, as that worked I tried on a number of other 2008 R2 RD servers and it appeared I'd found the cause of what had been troubling me for some time, I tried a 2008 RD server and it too worked without a problem. Huzzah!

My tips would be try alternative printer drivers, remove any printers you don't need / want any more or try a different driver version. I had to use the Dell 3115CN drivers for our Dell 3110CN printer, they're basically the same unit, just that one has scanning & faxing capabilities while the other doesn't.

If unchecking the printer option doesn't cure your mstsc crashing, try some of the other Local Resource settings.


EDIT:
This still seems to be an issue in Windows 10, today it was a Ricoh / Afico ISC 2020 with PCL6 Universal drivers.


The error message when mstsc.exe crash was "Remote Desktop connection has stopped working" - simple but obvious, eh?

and the Application event viewer logs:

Faulting application name: mstsc.exe, version: 6.2.9200.16465, time stamp: 0x50b422f2
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 6.2.9200.16420, time stamp: 0x505ab405
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000000002a93
Faulting process id: 0x1180
Faulting application start time: 0x01ce20aa5000249d
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\system32\mstsc.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
Report Id: 992f8e23-8c9d-11e2-be92-00119520678b
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:
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9 comments:

  1. Unknown2 October 2013 at 17:52:00 BST

    You are the ONLY one I have seen out of so many posts abt this in the past year to get this working for me OMG!!! Thank you!!!!!!!! Now i can spread the love at my job!!!
    5 STARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Richard Foleher25 October 2013 at 11:32:00 BST

    Absolutely awesome! This solved my issue instantly!!! Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jayton Garnett8 November 2013 at 08:44:00 GMT

    You're welcome, glad it helped!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unknown13 May 2014 at 09:18:00 BST

    Thanks a lot for this issue :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Aaron Abitia23 January 2015 at 01:55:00 GMT

    Yep, unchecked "Printers" under the Local Resources tab and the problem is fixed. Many thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unknown11 July 2015 at 08:36:00 BST

    It was also the Dell 3110cn Driver in our case. As you tried I am using the MFP 3115cn driver instead now! Thanks your your post !!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dom6 August 2015 at 16:21:00 BST

    Hello,
    This piece of advice solved my same issue instantly by unchecking the printer option ! Thank you very much !

    ReplyDelete
  8. Jayton Garnett7 August 2015 at 21:39:00 BST

    You're welcome :) I'm amazed at how many people this has helped!!

    ReplyDelete

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