You may receive the following error message if the network disconnects during certain network operations: When you receive this error message, clicking Cancel or Retry has no effect. Pressing CTRL+ALT+DELETE also has no effect. You must turn the computer off and back on, or press its reset switch, to restart the computer.

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

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Note that this problem does not occur when you are using a real-mode Novell NetWare client such as NETX.

This error can be triggered by a program trying to access an open file handle that has become invalid due to the network connection being lost. If the program tries to access the handle a finite number of times, clicking Cancel repeatedly will eventually return control to the program. If the program tries to access the handle in an infinite loop, there is no way to return control to the program or the system.

This error has also been reported to occur if a local, external hard disk is disconnected or turned off while a program has files on the drive open.

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