Particular Terminal Server client causes periodic graphics glitch.

[c***@180sx.net]

This has so far happened for 3 different staff members across several
sites, and despite extensive searching, I can't find any reference to
the problem, so I'm hoping someone here has seen a similar problem.

The problem is as follows. One particular staff member is getting
graphical glitches/black panels several times a day when logged into
their local Terminal Server.

Some interesting notes from trying to troubleshoot this problem:

Upgraded and tried several graphics drivers for this particular client
machine, didn't help the problem at all.
Tried changing bitmapped caching settings and screen resolution/colour
depth on the client, didn't help.
The problem seems to follow the staff members login. i.e. If they
logon using a different computer that has never exhibited the symptoms,
they get the same garbled graphics occasionally.

It almost appears as though that this occurs at a set time each day,
but sometimes it's just sporadic.

I'm really pulling my hair out over this problem, as it seems very
illogical and I can't troubleshoot it any further.

I suppose my next step would be to remove the user account completed
from AD and recreate from scratch, and hope that whatever
setting/glitch is causing the problem is rectified.

Has anyone else seen this particular type of graphics corruption under
a Terminal Services session?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Vera Noest [MVP]]

Yes, I see this occasionaly.

We've experienced this during a couple of years on Windows NT 4.0
TSE + Citrix MetaFrame 1.8. I have been troubleshooting this during
a long time, but finally gave up when I found numerous reports of
the same issue, without a real fix (after installing all of the MS
+ Citrix hotfixes that had *something*, *anything* to do with
graphics).

I never found any consistent relationship with username, client,
application, hardware, bitmap cache settings, screen resolution,
color depth, etc. Deleting the users profile and the cache usually
helped for some time, but never for long.

Recently, we moved to 2003 + Citrix PS3 and to my horror, the
problem is still there.
Fortunately, it is rather sporadic and we found out that the
easiest way to deal with it for users is to minimize and maximize
their TS session. That forces a screen redraw which clears the
problem. Shadowing the user session also clears the problem
(meaning you will never see it when you try to shadow a user who
has phoned the helpdesk for this issue).

I wouldn't delete your user accounts (been there, done that), it's
highly unlikely that it would solve your problem.

--
Vera Noest
MCSE, CCEA, Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
http://hem.fyristorg.com/vera/IT
--- please respond in newsgroup, NOT by private email ---

Post by c***@180sx.net
This has so far happened for 3 different staff members across
several sites, and despite extensive searching, I can't find any
reference to the problem, so I'm hoping someone here has seen a
similar problem.
The problem is as follows. One particular staff member is
getting graphical glitches/black panels several times a day when
logged into their local Terminal Server.
Upgraded and tried several graphics drivers for this particular
client machine, didn't help the problem at all.
Tried changing bitmapped caching settings and screen
resolution/colour depth on the client, didn't help.
The problem seems to follow the staff members login. i.e. If
they logon using a different computer that has never exhibited
the symptoms, they get the same garbled graphics occasionally.
It almost appears as though that this occurs at a set time each
day, but sometimes it's just sporadic.
I'm really pulling my hair out over this problem, as it seems
very illogical and I can't troubleshoot it any further.
I suppose my next step would be to remove the user account
completed from AD and recreate from scratch, and hope that
whatever setting/glitch is causing the problem is rectified.
Has anyone else seen this particular type of graphics corruption
under a Terminal Services session?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[c***@180sx.net]

Well, thanks for the reply. At least I don't feel like I'm alone with
this situation. I wasn't aware of being able to minimise and maximise
the session to force the screen redraw, that will be a big help,
thanks.

Your quite right, when you shadow the session, the problem doesn't
appear, although I have seen it with my own eyes several times.

Hopefully Microsoft can take this onboard and work towards a solution.