Windows 7 disconned mapped drives and printer connections

[weester]

We're using Windows 7 clients and 2003 R2 servers, for some reason the mapped drives will disconnect and the only way to reconnect them is to restart the clients.

 

Logging off and back on again has no effect.

Doubble clicking the disconnected drive has no effect.

Re-running the logon script (batch) has no effect.

 

In addition to the drive mappings disconnecting, the printer connections stop working.

 

Has anyone else had any of these issues?

[beaches511]

yes, exactly as you described. there doesn't seem to be any pattern to why it happens either

[weester]

Do run ISA on your server/s Beaches511?

[beaches511]

nope, not on any of them

[dsk]

We have the same issue, although our back end comprises of Sever 2008 domain controllers and 2008R2 file servers, in an ESXi environment. Not really sure why its happening.

[chrbb]

We are having this problem there's a similar thread also at the moment. I resorted today after complaints that staff can't print, to setting the laptop power settings to never going to sleep, left the on battery settings alone. No further problems reported!

[Dos_Box]

It sounds like the power option on your NICs could be set to energy saving mode. W7 Will turn off the NIC in the background to save power. My guess is that when it turns back on (all of this is transparent BTW) 2003 won't let it reconnect without re-authenticating.

Go to your NIC properties, click the Power Saving tab and uncheck 'Allow computer to turn off deviuce to save power'. Let me know if this works.

[chrbb]

Done that for the wireless adaptor, will I need to do it for the wired adaptor?

[Dos_Box]

If they are connected via the wired LAN at any point then yes.

[chrbb]

Done that still happening, so cancel post about laptop not going to sleep, it's still happening and driving me mad

[chrbb]

So this is still happening and still driving me crazy! Set the nic settings, laptop never goes to sleep, etc etc. Any one else got this happening?

[jthwang27]

i am also having this issue. has anybody found a fix for this issue?

[chrbb]

No luck so far, it seems to happen randomly sometimes a couple of times a day or might be ok one day then keep disconnecting the next.

[k-strider]

have you tried disabling IPv6 on the client, this was causing me some problems with not allowing reconnection to an offline drive despite the lan being connected, and disabling IPv6 looks like it might have fixed this for me.

[psydii]

Similar symptoms to this:

Access to a redirected folder or a home drive disconnects regularly on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7

The fix to which is included in SP1.

[Psymon]

Been having this problem for a while. Only noticed it since deploying printers with Group Policy.

 

Redirection, Mapped / Network Drives and Printers (all must require a persistent connection) are being dropped randomly. At first we thought it was when the machien went to sleep, however we extended sleep timer to 2hours (to cover lunch time) and the issue still occuring (some people even get it in the first 10mins of the day!).

 

Went through the MS Technet and was informed of the Network Cards sleeping (changed the reg settings site wide) and made no difference.

 

Simon

[psydii]

So does it annoy any of your users enough for them to be a trail blazer and have sp1 installed? It would be good to know if it fixes it, or whether I need to live in fear of it happening here!

[Psymon]

We installed SP1 on our IT and Bursary \ Accounts and Headmasters office today

 

Ill tell you if the issue re-occurs with us.

 

Simon

[Psymon]

Bursar had the issue a couple of days back.

 

We are set up as follows -

 

Windows 7 Clients

Hyper-V Server Environment

Server 2008R2 Print Server (Virtualised)

Server 2008R2 hosting Shared Areas (Virtualised)

Printers and drive maps deployed via Group Policy Preferences

PaperCut as our Print management software (happened with pCounter as our print management software as well)

 

More setup posts might allow us to get a feeling for the cause of the issue?

 

Si

[dsk]

Windows 7 clients (pre SP1)

VMware ESX 4.x environment

DC server 2008 (virtual)

File server 2008 R2 (virtual)

Printserver was 2003 initially, but has since been replaced with 2008R2 machine (virtual)

Papercut as our print management, though i dont think this really has anything to do with the issue.

[Psymon]

Windows 7 clients (pre SP1)

VMware ESX 4.x environment

DC server 2008 (virtual)

File server 2008 R2 (virtual)

Printserver was 2003 initially, but has since been replaced with 2008R2 machine (virtual)

Papercut as our print management, though i dont think this really has anything to do with the issue.

 

What method are you installing printers on the client machines?

Si

[bandgeekmafia78]

If you create this reg key it might do the trick:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

EnableLinkedConnections = 1 (DWord)

 

 

I used this key for a quite similar problem so perhaps its worth giving it a go.

 

Alan.

[Psymon]

Added this as a deployed reg entry to all desktops with the Registry preferences. Hopefully we hear less of the problems.

 

Simon

[Psymon]

Still having this issue now and then.

[psydii]

"Redirection, Mapped / Network Drives and Printers (all must require a persistent connection) are being dropped randomly. "

 

What do you mean by 'dropped randomly'?

Have you raised a call with Microsoft?

Have you tried capturing an network trace using netsh in Windows 7?

Have you tried the advice in this KB Article:Mapped Drive Connection to Network Share May Be Lost?

 

While that last article appears to mostly be talking about server side tuning, there is a sentence in there that related to the client side:

 

"To change the time-out duration in the client-side during a UNC connection, specify the arbitrary time in KeepConn.

Locate and then click the following key in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Service\lanmanworkstation\parametersValue: KeepConn"

 

Finally that article also says:

 

"Did this fix the problem?

 

* Check whether the problem is fixed. If the problem is fixed, you are finished with this section. If the problem is not fixed, you can contact support (Contact Us) ."

 

In my experience(*) 'I have the problem outlined in KBnnnnnnn, and it advises me to call you' is the magic incantation to getting non-chargable support from MS PSS.

 

(*)3 out of 7 calls

Edited March 21, 2011 by psydii
Readability improvements.