FPNW Service Stops Suddenly in WinNT 3.51 & WinNT 4.0

• Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.51 and 4.0
• Microsoft File and Print Services for NetWare versions 3.51 and 4.0

SYMPTOMS

On computers running Windows NT 3.51 Service Pack 5 (SP5) with File and Print Services for NetWare (FPNW) or Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2) with FPNW, the FPNW service suddenly stops. In some cases, it may take as long as a month to stop. The FPNW service can be restarted through the Services icon in Control Panel and will work again for a while.

When the FPNW service stops, nothing logs in the Event Viewer, but you receive the following Dr. Watson pop-up message:

        AN APPLICATION ERROR OCCURRED AND AN APPLICATION ERROR LOG IS BEING
        GENERATED. THIS ACCESS VIOLATION IS NWSSVC.EXE. EXCEPTION
        VIOLATION 0xc0000005, ADDRESS 0x758821f0.

CAUSE

FPNW is made up of several components. The principal two are the Nwssvc.exe process running in user mode and Fpnwsrv.sys running in kernel mode. The user mode process is where Fpnw.dll, Nwslib.dll, and other necessary files are loaded. Most printing and administrative functions are handled in this process.

Fpnwsrv.sys runs as a kernel mode driver and does most file I/O and connection functions.

The access violation (AV) in the NWSSVC process fails to address a situation in which it must get a NULL ACL back from a security descriptor, yet still have the NULL ACL report back as valid.

RESOLUTION

Obtain the hotfix below or wait for the next service pack.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT Server version 4.0. This problem was corrected in the latest Windows NT Server 4.0 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

Keywords          : kbbug3.51 kbbug4.00 ntnetserv NTSrv kbnetwork
Version           : WinNT:3.51,4.0
Platform          : winnt
Issue type        : kbbug
Solution Type     : kbservicepack