FIX: RPC Bug Causes Threads to Stop Responding in ASP/COM+ Applications

Hotfix Download Available
View and request hotfix downloads

View products that this article applies to.

This problem affects Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3).

SYMPTOMS

ASP applications that make cross-process COM calls might be affected by a bug in the remote procedure call (RPC) that can cause threads to stop responding ("hang"). Web clients may time out, and the Requests Executing or Requests Queued performance counters may rise over time. These counters may never return to zero, even during a period when the Web site is idle.

Back to the top

CAUSE

A bug in the RPC runtime can cause local COM calls to stop responding. This problem occurs only when several local RPC calls are made quickly from multiple threads, and each thread has a unique set of security credentials.

Back to the top

RESOLUTION

Service Pack Information

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

260910 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260910/EN-US/ ) How to Obtain the Latest Windows 2000 Service Pack

Back to the top

Hotfix Information

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, submit a request to Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

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

Note The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language.

The English version of this fix has the file attributes (or later) 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
   ------------------------------------------------------
   03-Feb-2003  17:11  5.0.2195.6661  431,888  Rpcrt4.dll

Note Because of file dependencies, the most recent hotfix or feature that contains this file will also contain additional files such as Ole32.dll and Rpcss.dll.

Back to the top

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 Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4.

Back to the top

MORE INFORMATION

The bug is in several post-SP3 hotfixes, including the following critical update from Windows Update:

331953 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331953/EN-US/ ) MS03-010: Flaw in RPC Endpoint Mapper Could Allow Denial of Service Attacks

Additionally, there are several request-only hotfixes that are available from Microsoft Support that contain the bug:

326803 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326803/EN-US/ ) Some Windows 2000 OLE Hotfixes May Cause a Conflict with SP3 for Windows 2000

322953 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322953/EN-US/ ) Cannot Browse Printers When You Are Trying to Print or Browse Printer Queues

326964 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326964/EN-US/ ) Random Access Violations Occur in Rpcss

327148 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/327148/EN-US/ ) The RPC Service Stops with Event ID 7031

326330 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326330/EN-US/ ) The Cluster Service Detects RPC Errors 1726 and 1722

329688 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329688/EN-US/ ) FIX: RPC_S_CALL_FAILED When You Use COM Server to Call Multithreaded Client Application

810008 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810008/EN-US/ ) Active RPC Connections Are Closed

328924 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328924/EN-US/ ) INFO: Availability of Windows 2000 Post-Service Pack 3 COM+ Hotfix Rollup Package 22

330081 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330081/EN-US/ ) INFO: Availability of Windows 2000 Post-Service Pack 3 COM+ Hotfix Rollup Package 23

810578 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810578/EN-US/ ) INFO: Availability of Windows 2000 Post-Service Pack 3 COM+ Hotfix Rollup Package 24

If you have installed any of the post-SP3 hotfixes in this list, the bug is present on your system and might cause problems when ASP pages make COM calls.

Back to the top