Clients open hundreds of pipes to \Pipe\Spoolss on print servers (321364)

SYMPTOMS

A client may open many named pipes to the \Pipe\Spoolss resource on a print server to which the client has mapped a network printer. This behavior may cause the print server to run out of named pipes, and the print server may log an entry that is similar to the following entry in the system event log:Event ID: 2009
Source: Srv
Description: The server could not expand a table because the table reached the maximum size. This behavior may also cause the spooler on the print server to consume a lot of CPU resources. Thread analysis shows that the CPU usage is spread over many threads. If you run the net files command while the server is experiencing this problem, you see a client with many connections to \Pipe\Spoolss.

RESOLUTION

Service pack information

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Windows 2000. For more 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

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Only apply it to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next Windows 2000 service pack that contains this hotfix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support

Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

File information

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

   Date         Time   Version        Size    File name
   -------------------------------------------------------
   28-Jan-2003  08:37  5.0.2195.6659  87,312  Win32spl.dll

Note Install this hotfix on the clients that exhibit the problem. Installing this hotfix on the server does not correct the problem.