RDP error "A Device attached to the system is not functioning"

Question

Hello!

I have a user currently experiencing an RDP issue on Windows 10 where they will try to RDP into their PC from another PC in the office and will occasionally be unable to. After typing in their account credentials, they are greeted with a black screen that flashes an error message "A Device attached to the system is not functioning" then promptly closes the RDP window.

As a work around we have been doing two things to get him back to being able to RDP in:

1. System Reboot. I will either walk over and physically restart the PC or RDP in with a different account and restart it
2. RDP in with a different account and go to task manager > users > right click > sign off his user account.

After much researching and troubleshooting, I discovered the culprit is one of his 5 USB devices plugged into the PC. During one of the troubleshooting attempts, I walked over to the PC and unplugged all 5 of his devices ( Webcam, Yeti Mic, Keyboard, Mouse, game controller ) and it then allowed him to immediately connect without issue.

I am trying to understand two things though I hope someone can help with!

1. When the user account is showing the error and stopping the RDP connection, why can I remote in with a different account successfully? Can the USB driver state be different per profile?
2. Why would a USB device stop an RDP connection? I would think it would just simply not load whichever USB device is causing the issue. Is there anyway to prevent this from happening and is this a known issue?

Next steps is to troubleshoot again in real-time when the issue happens again and unplug the devices 1 by 1 to see which one specifically it is.

Two notes: Device manager doesn't show any issues with any of the devices and Event Viewer doesn't show any errors/warning ect.

Answer 1

 HelloGino675

Answers to your questions.

When the user account is showing the error and stopping the RDP connection, why can I remote in with a different account successfully?

The current issue may be related to the profile of the account, the profile of each user is independent when connecting remotely, so you can successfully connect remotely when using different accounts.

Can the USB driver state be different per profile?

1. If different accounts use the same client to plug in the same USB device and use these devices to remotely connect to the same remote machine, the status of the USB driver in their respective profiles may be different. This is because each user's profile is independent, so their USB driver status may be different.
2. If the USB device is plugged into a remote computer, the status of the USB driver on the client should be the same, unless the state of the remote computer has been changed.

 

Why would a USB device stop an RDP connection? I would think it would just simply not load whichever USB device is causing the issue？

 

USB devices usually do not directly block RDP connections. In fact, when you use RDP to connect to a remote computer, RDP disables USB redirection by default, please confirm did you enable USB redirection. Problems with the USB device itself or its drivers may affect the remote connection, not just the failure to load the USB device.

 

Is there any way to prevent this from happening and is this a known issue?

 

It is not a known issue. To prevent this from happening, make sure that the USB device you are using is compatible with your computer's operating system and drivers and regularly update your computer's USB drivers and firmware to the latest version.

 

The next steps you plan to take are a good way for us to identify which device is causing the problem.

I hope the above information can be helpful to you.

 

Best regards,

Karlie Weng

Answer 2

Windows will sometimes display this error if the user account that you are trying to use to log in is already logged in remotely but disconnected from that machine, or in my case I try to change the remote session to console mode, for logmein hamachi, which caused this

Open elevated command line

query session

check the session id

and kill the session using: logoff {sessionid}, in my case it is 1

logoff 1

and remote desktop works again

If you don't have physical access to the server you can use psexec

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/psexec

to access the command prompt in the server you're trying to remote

psexec {server} -u {username} -p {password} cmd 

and the run query session

Answer 3

I know this is an old post, but I found a solution that works. The method is a bit unusual:

On your desktop PC, open Task Manager and right-click on the Windows Explorer process under the Windows Processes section in the Processes tab (not under the Apps section). Then, select Restart. After that, try reconnecting to the RDP server, the error should be gone.

I don't know why this works, hope somebody could explain it for me.

Answer 4

I know this is an old post, but I found a solution that works. The method is a bit unusual:

On your desktop PC, open Task Manager and right-click on the Windows Explorer process under the Windows Processes section in the Processes tab (not under the Apps section). Then, select Restart. After that, try reconnecting to the RDP server, the error should be gone.

I don't know why this works, hope somebody could explain it for me.