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At some point in the Windows session (usually days) I can no longer make RDP connections. When running mstsc and entering credentials, all buttons are getting disabled and the UI freezes. Existing sessions are unaffected, restart solves the problem.

I found advice to clear terminal services cache and disable sound in remote sessions. I tried, but it didn't help. Event log is empty.

Any suggestions on how to fix it please?

Edit: OS is Windows 2008R2x64, SP1 and fully updated. Mstsc version is 6.3.9600. Issue doesn't seem to be specific to the target machine (fails for all I've tried - Win7x64, Win8.1 and Win2008r2).

Murali Sankarbanda
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ya23
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  • More info please - ie client OS, server OS, what does 'some point in session usually days' mean, mstsc.exe file version etc – BlueCompute Oct 29 '14 at 11:39
  • Added more info. 'Some point in session (usually days)' means the problem is intermittent and usually presents itself after few days of Windows session is running, however sometimes it's a matter of hours - not sure what triggers it. – ya23 Oct 29 '14 at 13:07
  • Downvoting without leaving a comment is not very helpful... – ya23 Oct 30 '14 at 11:19
  • I had a very similar problem with Remote Desktop Connection on my Dell Windows 7 Laptop. When I disabled my Broadcom Usbccide Smartcard Reader using device manager this resolved my problem also. –  Aug 04 '15 at 17:23

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ya23, Could you try unticking the smartcard option in mstsc (Local Resources > Local devices and resources > more > unticking 'Smart Cards') and retry.

I have this problem on my 2008 Sp1 rds server mstsc connecting to other servers. Once it happens once, I don't seem to be able to connect to any other servers via mstsc until I reboot. However it comes back after a few days.

You enter credentials for the remote server and then press enter, then the pointer goes to an hourglass and the buttons on the connection dialog are greyed out - but instead of opening an mstsc sesssion it just sits there. Nothing ever happens - from 1 hour +. This doesn't happen with my 2003 TS Jump server.

Nothing in the event logs at all!

But removing the Smartcard option seemed to fix it for me today. Not sure if temporary though. Give the suggestion a try and let us know.

Pete
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  • I have a smartcard reader attached, so this seems relevant. Will try next time it happens. – ya23 Nov 24 '14 at 09:40
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5 years later.. +1 to smartcards - I have 3 yubikeys attached, and unplugging/replugging a specific one will instantly end an exactly 4 minute windows authentication box hangup, and then it doesn't happen again for hours or days.

This particular one has both of its buckets set to static passwords and does not have any other key data in either slot.

James63
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  • Same - having a yubikey on my client caused disconnecting/logging off rdcman sessions to hang the client, attempting to add credentials to remote windows task scheduler to run as user when not logged in to hang task scheduler, and powershell's `Get-Credential` to hang after entering details (even though creating a `pscredential` via its constructor worked fine). Thanks for finding this cause! – JohnLBevan Apr 03 '23 at 09:46
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Very similar situation for me, only no RDP connections could be made ever. I couldn't even cancel the Windows Security dialog without it hanging. I checked my RDP local resources to make sure smart cards were unchecked, but it still hung. I fixed it by disabling the Realtek USB 3.0 Card Reader device. The drivers are from 2019-06-21, so maybe a recent Windows update is bad.

brock
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  • Thank you very much! The Windows Security dialog was taking an eternity to complete to logon, and after disconnecting the RDP session the window was freezing. Solved by disconnecting an USB smartcard reader. – enrique Apr 16 '22 at 02:18
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I had the same issue but on Windows 8.1. Somebody in one of these forums made the comment that they used Remote Desktop Connection Manager instead of the standard Remote Desktop Connection mstsc.exe just out of preference, but they did not mention that as a solution.

I installed it from MS and then started playing around with it. I also had the device manager open and was experimenting with disabling the Smart Card Reader(s) and the Realtek Audio as that had been mentioned as well. I noticed that each time I would disable one of the items while trying to connect using the manager, it would then work. Kind of like the disabling would "trigger" the connection. After some experimentation, I realized that I could leave everything enabled, and the connection using Remote Desktop Manager would eventually work. Disabling the drivers only sped up the initialization of the connection. But, the standard client mstsc.exe still does not work even with all drivers disabled.

So, my "workaround" is to now use the Remote Desktop Connection Manager as my default client and abandon mstsc.exe

ya23
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Ryan Anderson
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  • welcome to Serverfault! Please consider editing your answer to make it a little more friendly to read. Right now it's a wall of text. Also, you can use markup to help with formatting, for example 'mstsc.exe' can be surrounded with backticks (`\`mstsc.exe\``) to be made to look like this: `mstsc.exe` – Gene Sep 03 '15 at 03:34
  • +1; Welcome to Serverfault. Interesting, I do have smartcard reader installed and IIRC my sound card is Realtek. – ya23 Sep 03 '15 at 10:54
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I experienced the above exactly - I had a finger print scanner/biometric multifactor authentication attached via USB (comes up as smart card in the remote desktop connections). After removing the biometric usb device Remote Desktop Connection worked again as expected.

George
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