I will use this tip to document Windows 2000 common problems, as reported in W2K newsgroups. I will also use this tip as an index for a set of gotcha!s in Windows 2000.
Single point of failure after converting from NT
The first NT domain controller converted to W2K server gets the PDC Emulation role. Other servers will forward authentication and change requests to this machine. If it fails, no NT authentication or changes. The NT BDCs will stop functioning.
Any W2K or Windows 2003 servers, W2K workstations or XP workstations will automatically detect that they are now in an Active Directory. They will convert themselves over to using Kerberos and LDAP as opposed to NTLM authentication methods. If you have to drop back to NT or the W2K DC fails before you have another one in place, these boxes will have to be removed from the domain manually and then added back in.
Add / Remove Programs generates error:
mshta.exe has generated errors and will be closed by windows. You will need to restart the program. An error log is being created. You will get the error ever time you try Control Panel's Add Remove Programs. To resolve at command line type:
sfc /purgecache
sfc /scannow
If it doesn't work, the problem may be caused by a registry problem. To resolve at command line type:
regsvr32 appwiz.cpl
AGP (accelerated graphics port) with AMD processor gets corrupted memory allocation corruption in the driver causing W2K to lock. There is a reg hack:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\Memory Management dword LargePageMinimum=0xffffffff.
AT: You schedule a task using Windows 2000 at scheduler. It mysteriously stops after 72 hours. Believe it or not, Microsoft built this behavior into W2K. A fix for this bizarre change will come with SP3 allowing you to have scheduled tasks run after 72 hours. Q304288
CD-Rom USB : you plug in a hotswapable USB CDROM. OK it doesn't work. Not so unusual but then you discover that the internal CD-ROM is now also unavailable. Weird! Delete the two keys, UpperFilters and LowerFilters from the following key and your CD-ROMs, including the USB version should work:
Q304288
AT: You schedule a task using Windows 2000 at scheduler. It mysteriously stops after 72 hours. Believe it or not, Microsoft built this behavior into W2K. A fix for this bizarre change will come with SP3 allowing you to have scheduled tasks run after 72 hours.
Baud rate keeps going back to 9600
Go to Control Panel : System : Hardware : Device Manager : Port (COM & LPT) : Port Settings and override the default 9600
Bizarre unreliable behavior on multiboot box with Windows 2000 or Windows XP. You will have no problem dual booting or multi-booting IF you install each operating system on its own partition. I have seen lots of reports of flaky behavior when W2K or XP is installed on the same partition with another OS including NT or Win9x.
CDRW : DirectCD 3.01 or later required for W2K. Current version is 5.+ For info and update see Software updates
CDRW : Easy CD Creator and DirectCD
Microsoft Media Player 7.0 breaks Easy CD Creator and DirectCD
Monitoring the newsgroups I see a lot of traffic pro/cons on Media Player but there seems to be a concensus on CD creator problems. A few report no problem. A large number report the CD Creator incompatibility. If this is part of your setup, I suggest caution re Media Player 7.
McAfee VirusScan breaks Easy CD Creator and DirectCD
The combination of McAfee VirusScan and DirectCD can crash W2K. Adaptec has released a patch for the problem: http://www.roxio.com/en/support/ecdc/ecdcupdates.html
Promise® Technology Ultra ATA/100 controller card
Technology Ultra 100 driver version 1.60. This is known to cause conflicts. For current drivers: www.promise.com
3COM® 3C905 network interface cards reports to conflict
For current drivers: www.3com.com
Delay Viewing Shares on Win98 from W2K
bug to be fixed next SP. There are reports that it can be resolved by deleting the key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace\{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}
Drivers : A persistent gotcha! is W2K driver availability. This will be resolved in time but you should check for incompatiblities. See Microsoft's W2K Compatibility test at www.microsoft.com/windows2000/upgrade/compat/default.asp.
Event ID 37 or 61 Winspool Error caused by a problem in the WMI Performance Library Dredger.
or other WinMgmt Performance counter error
Event ID 41
You will get Event ID 41 on multiple CPU systems if the CPUs have different stepping levels. The text in the event log will be:
"The CPUs in this multiprocessor system are not all the same revision level. To use all processors, the operating system restricts itself to the features of the least capable processor in the system. Should problems occur with this system, contact the CPU manufacturer to see if this mix of processors is supported." The use of CPUs with non-matching revision levels is not good in general. If the first CPU supports features A, B, and C, and the second CPU supports feature A, the machine will use only feature A on both CPUs. Also, for these two CPUs to work together without unexpected failures, you might need to disable features B and C on the first CPU.
Event ID 51
Getting these disk warnings in your event logs? If you are running an Open GL screensaver, change to a default or no screensaver and see if your errors don't disappear.
Event ID 578 : See fair number of questions about the event 578 errors. See if Q266282 is your problem. If you are anal or need to see if the issue discussed in Q266282 is the problem, apply the patch and see.
Event ID 677 generated by the Kerberos Service Ticket Service
Exchange DLs : multi-domain gotcha! You can not use global or local groups as DLs in a multi-Domain environment! Exchange 2000 can only query one Global Catalog at a time therefore Exchange 2000 won't be able to resolve members of Global Groups from a different domain in the forest. You have to use Universal Groups for DLs if your forest has multiple domains.
FASTFAT failure probably memory and not a corrupt driver
kernel-level driver automatically loads to provide support for FAT16 volumes as well as reading and writing floppies. W2K systems sometimes crash or refuse to start reporting errors in the file FASTFAT.SYS. Before trying to replaced the driver via either a parallel install of Windows 2000 or via the Recovery Console, check the most likely cause - a faulty SIMM or DIMM. Replace the memory from a know good PC.
Fixmbr error : This computer appears to have a non-standard or invalid master boot record. FIXMBR may damage your partition tables if you proceed. This could cause all the partitions on the current hard disk to become inaccessible. If you are not having problems accessing your drive, do not continue. Are you sure you want to write a new MBR? Ignore the message, the fixmbr command can safely rewrite the MBR.
W2K hangs in setup for Armada 7800
See Microsoft kb article : Windows 2000 Setup Hangs on Compaq Armada 7800 This is caused by incompatible BIOS. This is a general problem and should any OS hang during setup, one of the first things to do is check the vendor's site for a BIOS upgrade.
You run a game that uses 3D AGP functions on a computer that contains the VIA AGP chip set
See Microsoft kb article : Video Hangs When You Run a 3D Graphics Programs Apply latest service pack to fix the VIA chip set support.
Hewlett-Packard recommends that you use the Hpdant.sys driver with its Hewlett-Packard Array Controllers and not the Dac960nt.sys driver that comes with NT
IE issues - probably not unique to any particular OS
IE : Links in Outlook Express Stop Working When you click on a link in Outlook Express either nothing happens, or when you open a link in a new window all you get is a blank page. The solution is fairly painless, all you need to do is re-register the URL monitor. Click on Start | Run and enter: "REGSVR32 URLMON.DLL" (without the quotes). You should then have a dialog tell you that the procedure was completed. Next, fire up Internet Explorer and Click Tools | Internet Options | Programs | then click the "Reset Web Settings" button.
IISreset gotcha!
Impersonation programs like su.exe fail starting with SP4 : user right Impersonate a client after authentication is required for the account that will run the impersonation program.
Internet Connection Sharing [ ICS ] does not work If ICS is installed on a W2K running either DNS or DHCP server, ICS will not work.
BugNet tests have verified that once the magical 52nd IP addresses is reached, without any warning or fanfare, Windows 2000 Server's Active Directory misplaces all of its directory
Installation fails Attempts to install Windows 2000 Pro fail. If you have two video cards and only one has a monitor. Plug a monitor into the second video card and try again. This should clear up the problem.
ISA console error message when trying to connect thru the console: Operation Failed - You do not have necessary permissions to perform this act. Failed to Connect. You installed the Remote ISA Server MMC console on W2K Pro even logged in as a Domain Admin. To fix: Click
start
run
dcomcnfg.exe
Select Default Access Permissions on the Default Security tab.
Add the Administrators Group
Reboot the isa server
For this and lots of other ISA tips, see ISA server FAQs.
Your home drive mapping occurs before the logon script runs. If the home drive mappling grabs a drive letter that you try to allocate as part of the logon script, you will get system error 85. Admins tend to scratch their heads over this drive letter conflict. How could the user profile be conflicting with the logon script? It should be first. It is. It is an admnistrator conflict. Change one or the other to resolve.
BOOT: Couldn't find NTLDR
Please insert another Disk
IF the NTLDR file is missing, you will see this error message. Replace the missing file using the repair process.
NTDETECT.COM boot error
If you get error at boot:
NTDETECT V4.01: Checking Harware
NTDETECT failed
--or---
Error Opening NTDETECT
Press any key to continue
NTDETECT.COM is missing or corrupt. Replace the missing file using the repair process. Alternatively the error could be generated if the ARC path in the BOOT.INI file is incorrect. Added a new drive?
NTOSKRNL.EXE boot error
If you get error at boot:
Windows NT could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\winnt\system32\NTOSKRNL.EXE Please reinstall a copy of the above file. The kernel file is missing or corrupt. Use the W2K emergency repair process to fix.
Outlook 97 : Cannot Start Outlook 97 in Windows 2000 You receive the following error message: The Program is not registered properly. Please run Setup again. You don't have appropriate permission to perform this operation. This happens if you are a local user or a domain user. Only local admins or domain admins can run Outlook 97 correctly. To fix it, you need to grant Users or Domain Users permissions to the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office
Password change delegation
when you delegate the ability to reset passwords to a user or group by using the Delegation of Control Wizard, that user or group does not have the permission to force a user, for whom the password has been reset, to change their password the next time that the user logs on. If the user to whom you give the permission to reset passwords right-clicks a user account, clicks Reset Password, and then clicks to select the User must change password at next logon check box, the user is not forced to change their password the next time that this user logs on. resolution: Q296999
Password change gotcha! : If you are logged onto two workstations, say a user workstation and admin workstation, and you change your AD password on one of the workstations. You are likely to get a surprise. On the the second workstation when the Kerberos Ticket attempts to refresh its token, it will result in your AD account getting locked out.
Reboots after a failure, W2K
The system is probably set to automatically reboot when it fails. To turn off automatic reboot:
Right-click on My Computer and select Properties
Go to Advanced Tab
Under System Failure disable Automatically Reboot
Renamed folder when viewed in Explorer shows original name - press F5
Runas does not work with UNCs in W2K - NOT so
NO : runas /user:Domainuser "\servernamesharepath"
YES: runas /user:Domainuser "explorer \servernamesharepath"
Scheduler
Scheduled Tasks No Longer Run When You Remove Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 See Q823441 for more info.
Services don't start after installing ISA : for some reason longfile name support was disabled.
Server or workstation shutdown problems
have seen several reports of W2K servers not shutting down, never getting to the shutdown screen. not uncommon for workstations either. In a lot of cases, the problem seems to be caused by the presence of Media Player. Now why one would have Media Player on a server ???? In any case, remove it and see if that resolves the problem. If you are using a server as a desktop, go to Control Panel, Display, Screen Saver, Click on the Power button and set the Power Schemes to Home/Office Desk.
sfc
lots of problems with Windows 2000 can be solved using the command line utility sfc. See Manage boot volume space consumed by Windows 2000 Windows File Protection dllcache for background and more info on the sfc utility. If your W2K installation is now flaky, it may be something you installed that overwrote a W2K critical dll. Run sfc /scannow
Shares on the W2K server not accessible Windows 2000 allows creation of sharenames of length greater than 20 characters. Don't if you want any other OS to access them, keep the sharenames below 20 characters.
Shortcuts from the Start Menu or from the Desktop don't run Q172223
When you double-click on a shortcut or select an item from the Start menu, nothing happens. When you try to run any program or shortcut from Control Panel, the following error messages may appear:
Access to the specified device, path, or file is denied. -or- This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in My Computer by clicking View and then clicking Options. The problem is caused by the Open and/or Open\Command key(s) in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Exefile\Shell subkey of the registry have been corrupted, modified, or are missing.
Stop 0x6b or Stop 0x0000006b Stop 0x0000006b 0xc0000022. The code 0xC0000022 indicates "access denied." This error generally occurs after applying a hotfix. See Q307012 to fix.
STOP 0x00000073 CONFIG_LIST_FAILED Error Message in Windows XP
one of the core Windows system hives (the SAM hive, the SECURITY hive, the SOFTWARE hive, or the DEFAULT hive) cannot be linked in the Windows registry. However, this error does not mean that the hive is damaged or that it was not loaded successfully.
UNC : \\server\share is 10% slower than using drive letters. OK. No big deal usually but I have seen reports that Norton AV Autoprotect v7, nav2001 can make the UNCs extremely slow. If you think you have the problem, turn off Autoprotect and see if the network copies return to normal speeds.
After your computer restarts, partitions on physical hard disks may be either missing or appear in the Disk Management tool as 7.88 gigabytes (GB) in size and "Healthy". However, within the drive, one or more of the partitions may be listed as being unformatted or damaged. Also, if you try to open the partition in Windows Explorer, you receive a message that indicates the drive is not formatted and you are then prompted to format the drive. Windows 2000 SP1 introduced a fix to correct when CHS or LBA addressing should be used to address a drive. Some IDE hard disks provide a jumper that limits the number of cylinders. If this jumper is in use, the hard disk is not addressed properly after you apply Windows 2000 SP1. Note that this jumper is not required when you are running Windows 2000, is not usually installed as a default setting by the manufacturer, and should be removed.
Windows Update is enable when SP4 applied even if you have it disabled.
When you logon, a Windows NT Explorer window opens displaying the contents of the System32 folder. This is can occur if a null, incomplete, or damaged entry exists in the registry. See Q170086.
W2K has changed the NetBIOS domain naming standard from NT4. The space is no longer a legal character. Win2K NetBIOS domain names can contain the following special characters: