CompguyG
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Remote Desktop locks up at login - black screen
I have recently reformatted 2 machines and downgraded from Vista Ultimate to XP Professional SP3. One is at my house, and the other is at work. Both workstations are completely different hardware-wise, and I have used remote desktop successfully when they were both Vista for 8+ months. Nothing has changed on either network, and the hardware is exactly the same as it was when it was Vista.
Now, when connecting to either computer remotely via Windows Remote Desktop, either between the two, or from a 3rd (or 4th) completely separate computer (on randomly different networks), I get the bar at the top with the IP address, and the login screen, I log in, and the screen goes black and basically locks up the computer until i do a manual shutdown of it via the power button on the front of the machine.
I have searched and searched for answers and have found various different solutions, but none of them seem to be the right one. Again, this is just with these two newly formatted computers with all service packs and patches, and the firewall has been adjusted accordingly. Anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking it has to do with something in a patch because both computers were redone within a week of each other, but nothing on Microsoft's site seems to shed some light on this really strange problem.
Now, when connecting to either computer remotely via Windows Remote Desktop, either between the two, or from a 3rd (or 4th) completely separate computer (on randomly different networks), I get the bar at the top with the IP address, and the login screen, I log in, and the screen goes black and basically locks up the computer until i do a manual shutdown of it via the power button on the front of the machine.
I have searched and searched for answers and have found various different solutions, but none of them seem to be the right one. Again, this is just with these two newly formatted computers with all service packs and patches, and the firewall has been adjusted accordingly. Anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking it has to do with something in a patch because both computers were redone within a week of each other, but nothing on Microsoft's site seems to shed some light on this really strange problem.
SOLUTION
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The most common solution to fixing a black screen at logon is to disable "Bitmap Caching", in the Remote Desktop client connection properties, under options/Experience'.
A gray or other color screen is usually due to a screen saver being active on the host/server computer, but you could try disabling that as well.
A gray or other color screen is usually due to a screen saver being active on the host/server computer, but you could try disabling that as well.
PS... Not a solution, but I strongly recommend REALVNC instead of RDP. Free for personal use and it has far more options and offers better performance.
Link to free edition
http://www.realvnc.com/products/free/4.1/winvnc.html
Link to free edition
http://www.realvnc.com/products/free/4.1/winvnc.html
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
After looking closer at jckingjc's comment about service pack 3, I did some extensive browsing today to find this solution.
FYI, we had to increase the setting CompguyG indicated above to 80 for it to work
Final value was 00000080(128)
Final value was 00000080(128)
thanks, that worked great!!
Also, have you tried connecting with a different user account??