File Server Hangs Network After Accessing Shared CD-ROM (107056)

SYMPTOMS

When a workstation uses File Manager to examine the directory tree of a CD-ROM mounted on a Windows for Workgroups file server, the Windows for Workgroups network may stop responding (hang) until the file server machine is rebooted.

This problem does not occur if you access the CD-ROM from the machine sharing the disk. Also, this problem may not occur if you are accessing the shared CD-ROM over the network after the local machine has read the directory structure.

CAUSE

This problem occurs with specific CD-ROM directory structures. For example, CD-ROMs included with the following software packages cause this problem:

CorelDRAW 3.0b
SIMTEL20 Collection
CICA Windows Collection

The problem seems to be with the way the sector buffers are being handled.

WORKAROUND

You may be able to work around this problem by increasing the /M: switch value and adding the /E switch. For example:

   c:\dos\mscdex.exe /d:mscd001 /m:100 /e /s

For this to work, you'll need to use EMM386.EXE (or a third party expanded memory manager) to expanded memory services (EMS) memory. For example:

     device=c:\windows\emm386.exe 1024 RAM

It is possible to determine how much expanded memory is needed by using the MSCDEX /V (verbose) switch and inserting a PAUSE statement after the MSCDEX line in your autoexec.bat file. For example:

   c:\dos\mscdex.exe /d:mscd001 /m:100 /e /s /v
   pause

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft CD-ROM Extensions (MSCDEX.EXE) versions 2.21, 2.22, and 2.23. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.