A Device Attached to the System is not Functioning

Every now and then, when I attempt to connect to my work machine using Remote Desktop, I encounter the following error:

Considering I have no special devices plugged in at work, the message always comes as a surprise. Multiple attempts to connect will simply result in the same message, forever blocking the connection.

Solution

The solution I found involves using Remote Desktop to connect to another machine at my work, and using that machine to resolve the problem. Let’s say ALPHA is my primary work machine, and BETA is a secondary machine I can access from home.

Here’s what I do to resolve the error:

Log into BETA with Remote Desktop, from my home machine.
From within BETA, I launch Remote Desktop again, and connect to ALPHA.
From within ALPHA, I click Start > Log off, which will log off the user, and ultimately disconnect my Remote Desktop session.
With the ALPHA connection closed, I simply disconnect from BETA using my home machine.

Once those steps are completed, I’m usually able to connect to ALPHA directly from my home machine, without seeing the error. It seems that it has something to do with the user session, perhaps also combined with the operating system you are using to connect. If you can’t connect to BETA, consider finding an alternative with an older operating system. In my case, BETA ran Windows Server 2003, while ALPHA ran Windows Vista Business.