Unable to KILL Processes or Terminate Down Sessions in Terminal Server

• Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0, Terminal Server Edition

SYMPTOMS

Occasionally, while in Terminal Server, a process will stop responding (hang). Typically, it will be Csrss.exe; sometimes, the Windows NT Virtual DOS Machine (NTVDM) is associated with this process, but not always. When this process stops responding, it may continue to use CPU cycles until the CPU reaches 100 percent utilization.

The affected client will usually disconnect and establish a new session so it can continue work.

The previous session will show up in the Terminal Server Administrator as a DOWN session. The only way to remove this DOWN session is to restart the server, which is not feasible for production-based servers.

CAUSE

This problem may be caused by a 16-bit application that is not behaving properly. You may be able to control Csrss.exe and NTVDM by setting the BadApp information for whatever application caused the problem.

For additional information, please see the following article(s) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q186628 Performance Tuning CPU Use for 16, 32-bit Windows Applications

RESOLUTION

To work around this problem, try using the Kill.exe tool on the supplemental resource kit; this works better than the default Kill.exe included with Terminal Server, but it is not completely effective.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT 4.0, Terminal Server Edition.

Additional query words:

Keywords :
Version : winnt:4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug