Windows 2000 Clients Generate Excessive Named Pipe Handles on Print Servers Under Certain Conditions (257555)

SYMPTOMS

Windows 2000-based clients normally open several named pipe spooler connections during the print process when you print from a program to a print server. These pipe connections should be open for a relatively short duration (90 seconds or less). Under certain circumstances, the number of the open pipe connections on the server may grow to a large number if open pipe connections are not reused or if a process handle leak occurs.

If this problem is occurring, users may experience slow enumeration and slowness in connecting to print servers. Examination of the Spoolss process on the print server in Perfmon shows a high process handle count. For Windows NT 4.0 Server examine Spoolss.exe, and for Windows 2000 examine Spoolsv.exe.

CAUSE

Windows 2000-based clients should attempt to reuse the spooler pipe connections, and a clean-up routine on the print server should be reducing idle pipe connections.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

260910 How to Obtain the Latest Windows 2000 Service Pack

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

This problem was first corrected in Windows 2000 Service Pack 1.

MORE INFORMATION

This is a client side hotfix, so it must be applied to the Windows 2000 client. Printing from the Windows 2000 Server console or through a Terminal client to a Windows 2000 Server may require application of this hotfix to the Server side. Under this circumstance, the Server will be acting as a client.