Remote Desktop crashes host when connecting from client #

A brand new Dell Precision T3500 running Windows XP SP3 was crashing hard every time a client connected via Remote Desktop. Sometimes the host monitor would freeze with funky graphic patterns, so the display adapter (NVIDIA Quadro NVS 295) was suspected.

The fix turned out to be adding a new DWORD named SessionImageSize with a value of 20 to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management] on the host machine.

Apparently this issue can also manifest as being unable to connect to Remote Desktop at all, with the following error message: "This computer can't connect to the remote computer. Try connecting again. If the problem continues, contact the owner of the remote computer or your network administrator."

Sources:

Nvidia Drivers Break Remote Desktop
bandom rastard's post on NVIDIA Forums
Remote Desktop Disconnects at logon
Yakelaen's post on Microsoft's Windows Home Server Forum. He adds: "Other posts on the nVidia forum above have reported that 32 MB didn't work for them but by increasing the size (Value data setting) of the sessionimagesize they overcame the problem. 00000020 = 32MB, 00000040 = 64MB, 00000060 = 96MB, 00000080 = 128MB"

/windows | Oct 17, 2009

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