XP Remote Desktop freezes at login

[LoneWolf]

Hi Guys,

This one's likely a tough one, and I didn't know the best sub-forum to post it in, since it could fall under several categories. Here goes.

At work, I have a Dell Precision 670 workstation. Originally, it was a single 3GHz Irwindale-core Xeon. Several months ago, I upgraded it to 4GB of RAM, and more recently, I have upgraded it with a second 3GHz Xeon. Both steppings are identical, and Hyperthreading is enabled on both. I'm running XP Pro SP3.

Approximately the same time I added the second CPU, I've encountered an issue. I've always been able to remote in to the Precision from home with Remote Desktop using my ThinkPad. Now when I try, I get the logon screen, but the moment I click OK to log in, the remote system freezes. When I come back to work, I find that the workstation has hard-locked, and must be cold-booted.

Does anyone have any ideas, short of reloading the OS? I'm not averse to doing that, but it'd be a lot of work and might not fix the issue, so I'd like to start simple. Any help y'all can provide would be appreciated.

[dr.sandman]

Have you checked the error logs in event viewer to see if there is a process that is terminating before the hard lock. It sounds like a system process that isn't handling the remote login properly. You could try a load-on-top.

[panhead]

You might have had a cache corruption problem. Delete the *.bmc files in:
\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Cache
or
Turn off "bitmap caching" on the Experience tab of the Remote Desktop Connection properties. This option is enabled by default for all connection speeds and will cause this problem from certain remote clients.

Run memory diags to check the new memory you installed.

[LoneWolf]

It appears there may be a bug in the nVidia drivers (for the Quadro FX1400) I was using that only occurs when adding a second processor. At least, that's my best guess, since nVidia's more recent drivers were fine until going to the second CPU. Going back to final-release nVidia drivers on Dell's website solved the problem.