Kevin Dente's Blog

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Friday, December 15, 2006 3:06 AM

I think it just might be a driver issue as I've been connecting via Remote Desktop and XP since the RTM was release on MSDN. What I have noticed, though, is that if I do remote in, when I come in the next morning, my LCD screen shows the login screen...no screen-saver. So, aside from slowly burning out my 4-year old LCD screen, not a problem :)

John Walker

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Friday, December 15, 2006 6:07 PM

If it is a driver issue then the original Microsoft drivers (installed by default) for Nvidia card are broken too. This problem does not happen always; it seems to be more frequent after I started using new Terminal client with 32bit color depth and wide screen (1680 pixels, local LCD has only 1280). Sometimes I can see random windows. Their partial images are placed at the top right corner of the screen but they still respond to the mouse at their correct position. Some windows (including display preferences control panel) are not visible at all (they are blank or the whole screen is blank). Even session control screen (shown after pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del) has redraw problems (although the buttons images are correctly repainted when the mouse is moved over them). The hibernation does not fix the problem so it does not seem to be a hardware issue.

Artur Zgodziński

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Thursday, June 14, 2007 12:17 AM

I am having the exact same problem described by Kevin.  This is happening on two identical Lenovo machines with ATI video cards running Vista Business Edition.  This blog posting is the only reference I have been able to find with the matching problem.  Has anyone found a solution/fix/workaround?

Richie Tenhet

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Tuesday, August 07, 2007 2:23 PM

I had this same problem, and finally figured out what was happening. I have a video card with dual-monitor output. However, I'm only using one of the outputs. Turns out my monitor is on output 2. Normally, this is fine (output 1 and output 2 are the same). However, after a remote desktop session, output 2 stops working. Switching the connection to output 1 took care of the problem.

Russell Davis

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Thursday, December 13, 2007 8:24 PM

I got this problem after upgrading to Vista sp1 release candidate. 64 bit , dualmonitor. ATI graphics card(Upgraded tot latest driver incase driver issue but didn't work).

Havent found anything on why this happens.

Remedy for know without reboot is to press sleep button on keyboard and wake computer the screen will work again.

Hamper

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Saturday, December 22, 2007 5:00 AM

Same issue here. Have been testing with several version of the nvidia forceware-drivers and mixing with the powersave options both in bios and in Windows Vista..

But still sometimes after using RDP to the machine the screen never comes back to life.

Currently using Vista with Sp1 RC.

Regards, Magnus Finbom

Magnus Finbom

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Friday, January 04, 2008 4:28 PM

I am having the same problem. One thing I have noticed is that if you log off through the remote(instead of just closing the connection) this problem goes away. Still very annoying...

Terry

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Wednesday, January 16, 2008 1:58 PM

Same problem here.

When returning to office both monitors have black screen with only the cursor moving.

Have dual screen setup on Vista Business sp1.

Anybody???

Peter

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Thursday, January 24, 2008 11:24 AM

Same problem here dual monitors..  Can't connect to local desktop after a remote desktop session. has someone bugged this with microsoft?

puppy

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Tuesday, February 05, 2008 1:31 AM

Don't know if this is a valid bug with MS and most may know this but if you get this screen, press CTRL+L to lock your computer and then type in your password to unlock again and that seems to make the screens work.

(Obviously I suffer from this too)

Romey

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Saturday, February 16, 2008 12:22 AM

Started seeing the same issue after installing Vista SP1 RC.  I uninstalled the SP1 RC, and the problem went away.

Mike

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Saturday, February 16, 2008 11:11 AM

Try this:

First, download the free Autoruns program, which is made by Sysinternals (a Microsoft-owned company). Thanks to Scott Dunn, whose article "Fast Windows Fixes" in the latest issue of PC World recommended this program.

Once you've downloaded and installed the program, right click on it and run it as an administrator.

Next, once the program is running, you will see a list of all the start-up functions in the registry and elsewhere. You will probably want to look for places where it says a file that the registry is supposed to load is not found, and either uncheck that entry or change the location to the one where the file is, if it still exists on your computer.

Jeroen74

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Thursday, February 21, 2008 4:54 PM

Happens to me too...

I have Vista Business 64 bit at office

nVidia FX3500/4000

Dual Displays (1600x1200 each)

I go home and use a laptop with 1920x1200

to rdesktop to my work system.

It authenticates, but just gives me a black screen and a mouse.

I come back to the office the next day and all I have is a mouse, nothing else.

Have to reboot the system.

BenRussoUSA

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Sunday, February 24, 2008 9:34 AM

Same problem here.  I remote into my Vista Ultimate box, single screen, and after I disconnect, I get the black screen after authenticating, either through RDP or locally, I get the black screen with mouse only.  

David

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Wednesday, February 27, 2008 4:39 AM

I do have the same problem, Vista Business Edition, SP1 RC.

Juan Blanco

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Sunday, March 02, 2008 3:33 AM

Hey,

I'm suffering from a similar problem too on two separate computers, both with ATI Radeon cards and Vista Ultimate (no SP1).

After RDC - sometimes but not always - the secondary display becomes black, with only the cursor showing (the primary display is typically unaffected).

FYI - there *IS* a workaround that prevents you from having to reboot your system - go to the Device Manager, go to the ATI driver, disable it, wait until it's disabled, and re-enable.  It takes about 20-30 seconds, significantly shorter and less painful than a reboot.

The caveat - you might have to re-enable it blindly, since once disabled, you don't have a video driver...  (you can use the keyboard to re-enable it, using the button that opens a context menu).  YMMV - I'm actually getting basic video after disabling the ATI card since upgrading to Catalyst 8.2.

The fact this problem can be solved by disabling and re-enabling the ATI driver makes me pretty confident this is a bug in Catalyst.  Theoretically it might be a bug in the Vista video driver system but I think it's less likely.  The description of the problem with the Nvidia card in this thread sounds like a separate corruption bug to me...

I've opened a trouble ticket with ATI about this a few days ago and I'm hopeful they'll be able to figure it out.

Zeev

Zeev

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Wednesday, March 05, 2008 7:02 AM

Happening to me too.  Using an Ati card and Vista x64 w/ SP1.  I'm not sure if the primary display is affected, because that is a projector that is not on all the time.  My short term fix may be to use a different remote desktop program given this is most likely a bug in ATI's driver.

Zeev:  Let us know what ATI says!

Will

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Thursday, March 06, 2008 12:29 PM

Out of curiosity - for those of you that are experiencing this problem - what kind of resolution(s) are you using?

Zeev

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Thursday, March 06, 2008 4:55 PM

Having the same issue

Vista x64 SP1 (RTM)

dual monitors 1680x1050 and 1280x1024

nvidia geforce 8600gt

Jon W

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Thursday, March 13, 2008 7:40 AM

Folks, see Russell Davis's reply. You need to hook your display to the other display port.

Miko

Miko Nahum

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Saturday, March 15, 2008 7:45 AM

Miko,

It's great except it doesn't really solve the problem at all, if you have two displays and you want both to work as they should.

UPDATE:  I got a response from ATI.  They say that they now believe this is an Operating System issue and therefore I should talk with Microsoft instead.  The fact that there are a couple of Nvidia owners here that complain about the same problem may mean they're right (in fact I pointed them to this blog - so that may have been what made them decide that).

Still - I'm not sure at all that this is really an OS problem.  To the Nvidia  users among you - can you elaborate on exactly what you're experiencing?  The first Nvidia user describes what appears to be quite a different problem - a redraw of specific parts of the screen.  I'm experiencing a completely black screen, cursor only.

NVIDIA USERS:  please send me any additional information you can.  I really want to figure out whether this is an OS problem or an ATI driver problem.  You can email me directly at zeev-ati@zend.com

Zeev

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Friday, March 21, 2008 5:12 PM

Completely black screen, have to kill explorer then restart for it to work again. Id say it works around 2 times before it will fail and force a restart.

Jon W

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Sunday, April 20, 2008 9:53 PM

Ive magically stopped having this issue, anyone else?

Jon W

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Wednesday, April 23, 2008 9:25 PM

I'm still getting it, have been since I installed Vista Ultimate at RTM. Ati card, dual-monitor setup. I get black screens, no mouse cursors, not even a signal to monitors (power buttons on dell monitors go to orange). The only key that does anything is the ESC and it just makes my machine beep. I do have microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse, but had this problem before when I had a wired keyboard and mouse. I haven't installed vista SP1, hoped a fix would come with it but sounds like it's not there yet.

John S

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Thursday, April 24, 2008 4:29 PM

I changed the power management settings in my BIOS for the wake on lan and remote wake on lan to allow each...

seems to have done the trick, I'll keep tunneling in to make sure.

John S

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Friday, April 25, 2008 6:34 PM

Doh, happened again. I did find that when I get to the computer at home (blank screens) I can hit CTRL-ALT-Delete (as if the monitors were on), hit enter (as if I were selecting the current user logged in, and type my password followed by enter. Magically the screens come back to life then. Makes me think that the computer is not actually in sleep mode, it's just that the video card thinks it's in some power saver mode or something and shuts 'em off.

I'm done trying to figure this out more, this workaround is good enough for me. hope it helps at least one person out there.

John S

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Sunday, May 04, 2008 5:48 PM

Nvidia user 8800gtx vista ultimate 64bit sp2... frantically looking for solution. None of the above seems to work for me, will come back if I find solution.

Tim

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Sunday, May 04, 2008 6:49 PM

Did a series of attempts with no luck... reformat is my only option... I can now see my wonderful screens again.  

what a pain, been running vista for less than a month, I bought it over a year ago but feared installing it... strange huh?

Tim

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Sunday, May 04, 2008 7:17 PM

my bad... vista sp1

Tim

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Sunday, June 08, 2008 8:10 PM

Only solution I have so far is to set machine to sleep when I hit the power button, takes about 20 seconds. Then power up from sleep takes about 10 seconds. After that, screen is active.

Glen Lalonde

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Tuesday, June 10, 2008 10:02 AM

Pretty much the same issue here. But when I go from remote to local, the system tells me that it's busy disconnecting a remote session. The only thing I can do is hard reset the machine. Happens everytime. Sucks.

Nik

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Thursday, June 26, 2008 6:35 PM

Similar problem here.  I can connect and it works great.  As soon as I disconnect I can't reconnect (Says its busy processing a connect, disconnect...) and the only way to fix it is to hard boot the computer.

S. Gordon

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Monday, June 30, 2008 7:14 PM

Ditto.  Changed motherboard (had one handy), reinstalled Vista.  Goes to sleep, wakes up black screen.  I think its related to the fact that the monitor is off.  Somehow the video card thinks the monitor is unplugged so never powers back on.  If the PC goes to sleep when the monitor is on, it will wake back up as expected.

Kurt

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Monday, July 21, 2008 2:39 PM

Try unplugging your keyboard / mouse and then plugging them back in - for some reason my Vista x64 disables them after remote desktop.

Rabbit80

# re: Vista Issue of the Day - Remote Desktop Kills Local Desktop@ Monday, July 28, 2008 10:31 AM

Hey guys. I was suffering on the same anoying bug. I am not sure how to fix it but i've found a solution to avoid its occurrence.

www.somelifeblog.com/.../fixed-remote-desktop-vista-xp-freeze.html

describes how to disable additional sharing ressources.

Having no problem since i've disabled the smartcard and printersharing.

Hope that helps someone else out there :-)

Sascha Debie