I have a Windows Server 2008 R2 (enterprise) installation that I am using as a hyper-v server.
When I remote desktop over to the 08 server from XP (all internal on LAN), it is unusably slow, but not in the normal sense of just being slow, more like it hiccups constantly. Because movement of the mouse and screen repaints will be fine for a second or 2, then lock up for 5-10 seconds, then go back to normal for a few seconds, then hiccup again, etc..
I tried a desktop and laptop with XP SP3 on them, and the same result for both.
If I remote desktop to the same server from Windows 7 Client RC as well as Vista SP1 and everything is totally fine.
I know there are some RD differences between XP and Vista/7, but I don't know why this slowdown is happening, and of course I don't believe it should be happening.
Everything you search for with regards to a slow RD connection seems to turn up the autotuning stuff you can disable, however that doesn't really apply here since my issue is with XP and not Vista, and those commands for netsh don't exist in XP (and as far as I know, neither does auto tuning). In any event, I did try disabling those auto tuning network features on the server itself since it does support them, but it did not change anything with regards to this issue.Matt Kleinwaks - MSMVP MSDN Forums Moderator - www.zerosandtheone.com
I actually resolved my issue when I found a registry tweak and tried it out. Not sure if it covers all scenarios, but it is easy enough for you to test.
And on that key, make a new DWORD, and name it DisableTaskOffload. Set its value to 1.
Reboot and see if you get different results. I did this on the machine I was remoting into (in my case the Server 2008 box) and not my actual client XP machine.
After doing this, I am able to remote in and I get no slowdown.Matt Kleinwaks - MSMVP MSDN Forums Moderator - www.zerosandtheone.com
I have a very similar problem but the other way around. From my Win 7 to 2k8R2 it crawls on a gig backbone but 2k3 and 2k8 work fine. Tried autotuning but doesn't help. Well not noticably. I was also getting random encryption failure messages with drops outs. Now on the 2k8R2 box to other boxes 2k3, 2k8, 2k8R2 everythings works like gangbusters. What gives? Could this be ssl/cert related ?
Ok, more test results. I can rdp to from 2k8r2 -> 2k8r2 normal 2k8r2 -> 2k8 normal 2k8r2 -> 2k3 normal 2k8r2 -> 2k8 -> 2k8r2 slow 2k8r2 -> 2k8 -> 2k3 normal 2k8r2 -> 2k3 -> 2k8 normal 2k8r2 -> 2k3 -> 2k3 normal win7 -> 2k8r2 slow win7 -> 2k8 normal win7 -> 2k3 normal vista -> win7 normal
The only thing that seems to work is 2k8r2 to 2k8r2 every other connection to 2k8r2 crawls. BTW the win7 tests were from 2 different laptops with 2 different nics. Win7 to any thing other than 2k8r2 works great even rdp in rdp hopping.
Couple more results from XP. Connected and ran great for 30 secs and then it bogged. It seems to surge on XP. It works great for a spurt and then bogs the surges then bogs.
Even more testing. I put the win7 into basic color (no aero ) mode and connected and it works like XP really fast but in spurts. I tried disabling autotuninglevel level on both and still no effect. It spurts then stumbles then spurts then stumbles. I tried installing desktop experience on the 2k8r2 box and tried with both aero and basic from the win7 no joy.
BTW I am using x64 RTMs of both OSes win7 and 2k8r2 and vista and x86 XP
Also tried copying the mstsc.exe and the mui files to the win7 and no luck. So it looks like it is not a client issue per se.
Edited byShannon McCoyThursday, August 27, 2009 12:17 PM
I actually resolved my issue when I found a registry tweak and tried it out. Not sure if it covers all scenarios, but it is easy enough for you to test.
And on that key, make a new DWORD, and name it DisableTaskOffload. Set its value to 1.
Reboot and see if you get different results. I did this on the machine I was remoting into (in my case the Server 2008 box) and not my actual client XP machine.
After doing this, I am able to remote in and I get no slowdown.Matt Kleinwaks - MSMVP MSDN Forums Moderator - www.zerosandtheone.com
That worked great. I don't know where you got the info but I found an article that seems to address this subject well at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/888750 its for VS2005 but it gives a couple different alternatives including the one you posted. It may be the same place you found it but I thought I would post it just in case.
I can't even remember where I found it because I was searching high and low for a few days trying to resolve this. That link is good though because it gives a few alternatives, like doing it adapter specific instead of system wide (for systems with multiple nics)
Glad to hear it worked for you!Matt Kleinwaks - MSMVP MSDN Forums Moderator - www.zerosandtheone.com
Thanks alot for your very useful hint about that registry key. I had almost given up hope, because all solutions regarding this issue were about disableing RSS and Autotuning. Its exactly as you describe: The Problem Occurs only trying to remote from any XP machine (SP3, latest RDC Client) into a 2k8 server (R2), from LAN or the Internet. But if you use WinVista or Win7: no problems at all (at lest in LAN, havn't had a chance to try it from the internets).
Best Regards, Le Chef de la cuisine
€: I gave the whole thing a second thougt. For me the problem might also have occured because i used inapopriate hardware. I do not posses a server mainboard, wich means it does not have an intelligent network adapter supporting TaskOffload.
I had unuseably slow RDP to Windows Web Server 2008 x64 and this solved it. kleinma you are so much my man of the week. Do do doo. Man of the week! [dancing]
This just worked for me, I had an install of 2008 R2 Enterprise running fine on a Dell Server that just died. I reinstalled on a new server and all of a sudden huge problems, tried this and now I am clicking and typing like there is no tomorrow,
thanks for the insight!!!
