July 25, 2008 02:22pm pdt

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	[x] Attachment Details

Event ID 2020 SVR - After HP Software install, reboots needed a couple times a day

Zone: Windows 2000 Server

Tags: 2020, event, id

The saga, I hope not to get too lengthy, but I want to give all pertinent information! :)

I have a Windows 2000 Server, running Terminal Services that 3 users log in with.

The three locations all got three new printers (that I did not recommend), HP Officejet 5610s.

In the past I have been able to finagle the drivers on the server for other past printers to work properly through Terminal Services.

While installing the Officejet driver, I was forced to install everything from the CD, the install would not continue telling me the OS was not supported.

After physically attaching a Officejet 5610 to the server, I was able to get a Printer installed and the locations could log in and their 5610 was properly created.

The next morning, I found that when the remote and local users went to a mapped drive they received an error saying the server ( I am paraphrasing) Did not have enough space to process the request.

The event view showed tons of Event ID 2020 from source SVR, "The server was unable to allocate from the system paged pool because the pool was empty."

Rebooting the server made it OK again, but I noticed a pattern that the 2020 errors occurred not long after a remote user logged in and their printer was created.

I removed all remote printers physically and uninstalled the so they did not appear in the Printers window.
This alleviated it, but the 2020s still persisted.

I went through the server and removed every HP folder, every HP registry entry, cleaned out the c:\winnt\system32\spool\drivers folder.

An occasional Terminal Service user logged in, she has a Deskjet 3740, this set off another set of 2020 errors again. The event viewer said the printer could not be created because it couldn't find a suitable driver.

I have installed the support tools so I could use poolmon and see where the memory leak is, but I am not sure how to interpret the numbers, I see the processes and the numbers change, but nothing really shoots through the roof or anything. Also, I cannot figure out how to get a dump from poolmon to post as part of this message.

poolmon /? gives me an unknown switch error

The others I have read about to create a text file to post also give me that unknown switch

So, I am sure it is a memory leak somewhere, I am relatively sure it is HP or printer related, I just need help tracking it down!!

Thanks in advance

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Question Stats

Zone: OS

Question Asked By: toe_mas

Solution Provided By: dreamyguy

Participating Experts: 2

Solution Grade: B

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Comment by toe_mas

Both of the above answers were partly right.
I have been waiting to post back until I was sure the problem was fixed.
This was a pretty important server, and they did not have time for me to track down this elusive little bug... so I gave in and called Microsoft and paid for the $249.00 phone call!
I got two techs on the phone and got them logged in with the Microsoft Live Assist.

One tech changed the IRPStackSize registry entry to a higher number (I had done this also) and he added a registry key I hadn't seen before:
hklm\system\ControlSet001\Services\lanmanserver\parameters
DWORD XactMemSize and set it to 1000000 Hex
This key helps the server to better manage the memory.

The other tech played in the printers area of the registry, comparing HP drivers, but really didn't change much.
He installed pmlc.msi, the PoolMon Log Creator.
He installed the Performance Monitor. perfwiz.exe. Then in perfmon, under Counter Logs, there is a PerfWiz entry.
These are all just monitoring tools to help analyze a crash, but I haven't had a crash since.

Thanks for the input

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Comment by rmrustice

They will find the culprit. Watching poolmon is a productive task only when the problem is pretty obvious (lets say the suspect component is fast doing its evil job and the computer hangs after a few hours or minutes). With a scheduled capture they will have a much better view.

Please, let us know how they solved your problem.

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Comment by dreamyguy

You can also use this article to find out the driver of a suspect pool tag
support.microsoft.com/kb/298102 - How to find pool tags that are used by third-party drivers.
The capture interval in poolmon log creator has to be set according to the frequency of the issue.
Once you have the poolmon logs, you may also share the link to it so that even we analyze it.

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Comment by dreamyguy

The articles that are generally followed for 2020 and 2019 issues are the registry tweaks mentioend in MS KB's 312362 and 324446

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312362 - Server is unable to allocate memory from the system paged pool
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324446 - Terminal Server and connected Terminal Services clients pause when a Terminal Services client logs on or logs off

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Comment by toe_mas

One tech removed HP*.dll entries and the other guy made the two registry changes. I am not sure which was the thing that repaired the error.

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Comment by dreamyguy

you can ask them for a complete case documentation/summary just so that you know what to do in case the issue re-occurs.
if you were to remove all hp*.dll entries from the system, then all your hp printers would become dysfunctional.

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Comment by toe_mas

Exactly, I will post the email when I get it from MS.

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Comment by rmrustice

Do you have the link for pmlc? I couldnt find it anywhere. Can you post that too?

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Comment by dreamyguy

It's an internal MS tool and not available publicly.
I use a script along with memsnap as an alternative.
it's not as good but it does the trick for me and besides, it does not require any installation.
a lot of admins have to go through RFC'S (request for change) in order to install software on a server hence this approach is more preferable in some scenarios.
http://www.ee-stuff.com/Expert/Upload/getFile.php?fid=5198 <--here's the link to it along with the instructions on how to use.

20080723-EE-VQP-34 / EE_QW_2_20070628