COMMAND

    ndis.sys

SYSTEMS AFFECTED

    WinNT

PROBLEM

    Ashley M. Kirchner found  following.  Well, Microsoft  claimed SP5
    was indestructible, didn't they?   Hmmm.  Setup: 3 NT4  Servers, 2
    of them with SP4 (referred to as server 1 and 2) and one with  SP5
    (referred to as server 3).  All on a 10/100 twisted pair  network,
    containing  several  Win95/98/NT4  Workstations  and Macs as well.
    Server 1 has an AppleTalk Zone  on it that services all the  Macs,
    and Netbeui for all the rest.

    Problem: Whenever we copied files FROM a Mac to Server 3, it would
    crash with the blue screen  'o death, and blaming it  on NDIS.SYS.
    Whenever we copied  files FROM any  Intel machine to  Server 3, no
    problems -  works like  a charm.   Whenever we  copied files  FROM
    Server  3,  TO  and  FROM  any  Intel machine, no problem.  (don't
    have any Mac servers, so  AMK couldn't punch files through  to one
    of them to see what happens, but suspicion is that it would  crash
    as well).   Each time  the server  crashed, upon  bootup, it would
    come up saying  that one of  the volumes on  one of its  drives is
    corrupted, and it'll  go through it's  autochk process and  get it
    fixed.  Actually, sometimes it  wouldn't even do that, and  you're
    left to  manually run  diskchk on  the drive  and fix  the problem
    then.

    Rolling back to  SP3, and voila  - everything works  like a charm!
    No crashes.   Went one  step further  and installed  SP4, still no
    problem.  Took a chance and re-applied SP5 and wham, NDIS.SYS  got
    screwed again.   All AppleTalk transfers  would crash the  server,
    all other  transfers would  work just  fine.   AND started getting
    volume corrupted  messages once  again each  time the  server went
    down due to a crash.   One difference Ashley did notice was,  that
    with SP5, the transfer (or  whatever part of it that  goes through
    before the server  crashes) goes a  lot faster compared  to SP3 or
    SP4.  So, it looks like, while patching NDIS.SYS up for Y2K,  they
    also tried to optimize the thing and in the process broke it.

SOLUTION

    Getchell, Abe - Sys. Support had the same problem with one of  web
    servers  and  has  heard  it  reported  from  a few schools in the
    Kentucky K-12  educational system.   The problem  is out  of  date
    files not being  replaced by the  SP5 installation program.   Look
    for the following files which should be on your system pre-SP5:

        sfmatalk.sys    123KB    8/9/96    2:30am
        sfmsrv.sys      130KB    8/9/96    2:30am

    Disconnect all users,  close all files,  even unplug the  box from
    the network if you  can, then re-apply SP5.   You should have  the
    following files on your system if everything goes well:

        04/29/99  12:04p               121,232 SFMATALK.SYS
        04/29/99  12:04p               132,976 SFMSRV.SYS

    This Will solve all problems with MAC services BSODing NT.