strange win2k behavior

["hotx" <godoflinux () attbi com>]

I have noticed a strange behavior in windows 2000.  In a command shell
run 
Cmd | echo hi

This will respond back hi, but when you try to retrieve your command
line back again, you get this message, "the process tried to write to a
non-existent pipe." I can not break out of this message without opening
another command shell. Also if you run command | echo hi and continually
hit control-C over and over again, you can notice the cpu usage start to
rise.  Anyone have any idea's what is causing this?

Hotx