RDP client is unreliable - get black screen after logging in if connection is suboptimal

Is there a workaround for this? Often I will just get a black screen when I connect to another machine via RDP over a remote connection such as a VPN. It seems like if the initial handshake doesn't go right or isn't fast enough the RDP client just gives up and gives black screens. Not sure what it is that causes it to fail.

Usually I could get it to connect fine at a lower resolution or just a single screen (less data to pull down), but obviously that is not an acceptable workaround if you need to use the machine. What I am doing now is just reconnecting over and over again until it finally works. Today it took me about 15 times to get a connection that worked.

After I am connected it works just fine - it is an issue with the initial handshake just being extremely unreliable with the WIndows 8.1 (and earlier) RDP client. Is there a setting that I can adjust to make this more robust? Or would a third party RDP client help? Or is it hopeless because it is an issue with the protocol itself? Unfortunately a change of protocols is not an option because of the VPN restrictions.

  • Edited by Grix823 Wednesday, July 01, 2015 5:06 AM
July 1st, 2015 4:45am

I have played around with the bitmap caching setting and it seems to make no difference. Furthermore the symptom mentioned is not the same - it is not slow to appear - it doesn't appear at all. If I get the black screen I can leave it there for hours and it will never actually display anything..

CTRL-ALT-END does nothing for me when the RDP connection is in the black screen state.

Also I should mention this is an issue with multiple clients at different locations on different connections and the server is usually Windows 7. The problem is definitely more frequent with a lower speed connection.

I know the VPN connection is probably not ideal (and out of my control) - but the failure mode for any suboptimal connection during handshake should not be a black screen. I'm not sure if anyone has actually tried to track down what the client is doing when this happens and why it just gives up and gives a black screen - but it has been a long standing issue.



  • Edited by Grix823 17 hours 5 minutes ago
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July 2nd, 2015 10:17am

I have played around with the bitmap caching setting and it seems to make no difference. Furthermore the symptom mentioned is not the same - it is not slow to appear - it doesn't appear at all. If I get the black screen I can leave it there for hours and it will never actually display anything..

CTRL-ALT-END does nothing for me when the RDP connection is in the black screen state.

Also I should mention this is an issue with multiple clients at different locations on different connections and the server is usually Windows 7. The problem is definitely more frequent with a lower speed connection.

I know the VPN connection is probably not ideal (and out of my control) - but the failure mode for any suboptimal connection during handshake should not be a black screen. I'm not sure if anyone has actually tried to track down what the client is doing when this happens and why it just gives up and gives a black screen - but it has been a long standing issue.



  • Edited by Grix823 Thursday, July 02, 2015 2:17 PM
July 2nd, 2015 2:13pm

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