Heya All,

XP PC, 2003 Server. I have an on going problem (for years it seems) where the connection to my server's shared drives just drops. That is a separate problem. The more immediate and frustrating problem I get is that if the connection drops and I then try to open a file in ANY application, the Open File Dialog just freezes up and basically causes havoc often to the point where I have to reboot using reset button. Since this only happens after the connection to the network mapped drives is dropped I figure it XP continuously trying to "access" these drives. What I was wondering ids if there is a setting somewhere where I can tell XP to GIVE UP after about 2 seconds and just give me back an error saying the drive is not available so I can continue working.

Thanks

Toodles,
Steve Dingle
www.dsbusinesssolutions.co.uk
D&S Business Solutions Ltd

Have a look at the various settings mentioned in these.

Losing Network Connection / Mapped Drives
thread779-851312: Losing Network Connection / Mapped Drives  

XP slow displaying network drives
thread779-977069: XP slow displaying network drives

Mapped drive - slow response at first
thread779-1263393: Mapped drive - slow response at first

XP slow network read and file list solution
thread779-1320872: XP slow network read and file list solution

Mapped Drive takes forever to open in XP!
thread779-935638: Mapped Drive takes forever to open in XP!


Just some notes on Service Timeouts.

To increase the timeout value in the registry, follow these steps:
Start Registry Editor (Regedit.exe).
To change the value data for the ServicesPipeTimeout DWORD value to 60000 in the Control key, follow these steps:
Locate and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet

Click the Control subkey
Right-click the ServicesPipeTimeout DWORD value, and then click Modify.
Click Decimal.
Type 60000, and then click OK.
If the ServicesPipeTimeout value is not available, add the new DWORD value, and then set its value data to 60000 in the Control key. To do so, follow these steps:
Locate and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet

Click the Control subkey.
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
Type ServicesPipeTimeout, and then press ENTER.
Right-click the ServicesPipeTimeout DWORD value, and then click Modify.
Click Decimal.
Type a value of 60000, and then click OK.

The value is 60000 milliseconds and is equivalent to 60 seconds or to one minute.
Note This change does not take effect until the computer is restarted.