FAX: Fax Gateway Stops with Corrupt RRS.FAX

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Mail Gateway to Fax, version 3.0.1

SYMPTOMS

Version 3.0.1 of Microsoft Mail Gateway to Fax can experience a critical error that halts the program. The critical error may be caused by a corrupt RRS.FAX file. The gateway screen will show the following message:

   A Critical error has occurred (10:0:2:0)
   Attempted operation: CREATE File affected: M:\FAX\RRS.FAX

   A Critical error has occurred (10:0:2:0)
   Database function failure

   [<time>] - RRS.FAX file is corrupted
   [<time>] -   >>> Press any key to shutdown

CAUSE

The errors mentioned above are the result of a corrupt RRS.FAX file.

The RRS.FAX file can be corrupted under the following circumstances:

• A fax message is sent with a bad phone number.
• No other valid recipients are in the message.
• The faxout cycle begins with more than one mail item in the fax queue.
• The bad message follows a good message.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in version 3.0.1 of the Microsoft Mail Gateway to FAX. A fix for this problem is in development, but has not been regression-tested and may be destabilizing in production environments. Contact Microsoft Product Support Services for more information on the availability of this fix.

MORE INFORMATION

After the sequence of events mentioned in the "Symptoms" section above, it is not possible to compress the RRS.FAX file. It has been renamed to TMPRRS.FAX, and it still contains the corruption.

To recover, restore the RRS.FAX file from the installation disk. The initial RRS.FAX file is four 00 bytes. When the RRS.FAX file is reset, the messages in the FAX queue should be returned or deleted using the Microsoft Mail Administrator's program (ADMIN.EXE).