Stopping SNA Server Service Causes Perpetual "Stopping" Status

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.51
• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 3.51
• Microsoft SNA Server for Windows NT, versions 2.0, 2.1, 2.11, and Service Pack 1 for SNA Server

SYMPTOMS

When SNA Server is configured with one or more 802.2 Token Ring or Ethernet connections on Windows NT 3.51 (or 3.51 Service Pack 1-4), the following problems can occur:

• When you stop SNA Server, the SNA Server Admin program shows the server in a perpetual "Stopping" state. If you issue the NET START command, the command shows the SNA Server service as stopped, though one or more 802.2 link services (SNADLC1, SNADLC2, ...) are still started.
• If you stop an 802.2 connection or and 802.2 connection fails, the connection may be stuck in an "Inactive" state and it is not possible to restart it using SNA Server Admin.

CAUSE

During connection shutdown, the SNA Server 802.2 link service issues commands (such as DIR_READ_LOG or DLC_CLOSE_STATION) to the Windows NT DLC.SYS driver which never complete, causing the link service to fail to respond to the SNA Server Close(Link) request.

While processing these commands, the Windows NT DLC driver is waiting on a response from the underlying NDIS miniport driver. However, the Windows NT NDIS.SYS wrapper request handler is not properly processing requests from the transport driver in some cases, causing an NDIS command to fail to complete.

RESOLUTION

Contact Microsoft for a Windows NT 3.51 hotfix for this problem.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 3.51 Service Pack 4. This problem was corrected in the latest Windows NT 3.51 U.S. Service Pack. For information on obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

   S E R V P A C K