This is probably one of the most frustrating problems I've ever had to deal with! I'm hoping someone here has seen it before. Seems very unsolved across other forums.
Opening office documents (2003) by double clicking from the desktop can take 2min for the program to open, and another 2min for the data to load. Even a simple word doc. If you open the program first, and use the file/open command, it is instant, always.
During the wait time... task manager shows the computer at almost idle, with plenty of available memory, and the hard drive is not very active at all. You can also drag task manager around and "paint" over the desktop wall paper with the task manager window, as explorer appears hung... until the application finally opens.
Other odd behavior that seems related: clicking links in outlook emails take the same amount of time to finally launch into the web browser (IE). Outlook appears hung during this process as well, until the page finally loads in IE a few minutes later. Also, on rare occasion, clicking start -> control panel... it will also hang for a period of time with the start button in its "pressed" (darker green) state. A few minutes later, control panel will open.
Some of the employees have mentioned that even double clicking a jpeg on the desktop has the same delay, and that it is not program specific.
It may seem crazy, but it seems to be related to the network connection. (Something waiting for a timeout before continuing?) If you unplug the ethernet cable (and leave it unplugged), within a few minutes... the issue is gone... plug it back in... and a few minutes later... it comes back. Leaving the ethernet cable plugged in, the issue can also come and go through the day, seemingly at random periods. (Opens files perfectly fine for 20min, then back to lag for 20min).
I'm at a loss... the office has 6 workstations and a server as well as 6 networked printers... and each workstation appears to have this behavior intermittently and they do not coincide with one another. I've been able to duplicate the symptoms with the server offline... all printers offline... cable modem offline... (all at the same time, and invididually). The only sure fire way to get it to stop for good is to run windows in safe mode, or keep the network cable unhooked from the workstation.
Things tried so far besides unhooking the networked hardware are, ccleaner reg cleaning, AV/spyware scans, reset tcpip stack, disabled Qos, check to make sure windows firewall is disabled, even disabled all items in startup area of msconfig. No broken mapped drives under 'my computer' either. No luck.
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A long time ago, I had a laptop (xp home) with similar behavior... could not open files by clicking on them on the desktop (of any type) without lag. The laptop also would not go to sleep when the lid was closed. The only way to trick it into sleeping was to close the lid... open it... and use internet explorer to browse to a website. Sometimes that would trigger the sleep mode instantly as the page began to load... other times, it would happen after a few minutes of browsing. If you did not do this... it would remain on with the lid closed overnight. The issue eventually disappeared on its own, never to return. Like the current situation... it seems related to the network connection somehow.
Sorry for the long post... this has been quite a battle so far. I would appreciate any advice you all may have!
Last edited by ZeroOne on 19th March 2010, 10:42 pm; edited 1 time in total
Opening office documents (2003) by double clicking from the desktop can take 2min for the program to open, and another 2min for the data to load. Even a simple word doc. If you open the program first, and use the file/open command, it is instant, always.
During the wait time... task manager shows the computer at almost idle, with plenty of available memory, and the hard drive is not very active at all. You can also drag task manager around and "paint" over the desktop wall paper with the task manager window, as explorer appears hung... until the application finally opens.
Other odd behavior that seems related: clicking links in outlook emails take the same amount of time to finally launch into the web browser (IE). Outlook appears hung during this process as well, until the page finally loads in IE a few minutes later. Also, on rare occasion, clicking start -> control panel... it will also hang for a period of time with the start button in its "pressed" (darker green) state. A few minutes later, control panel will open.
Some of the employees have mentioned that even double clicking a jpeg on the desktop has the same delay, and that it is not program specific.
It may seem crazy, but it seems to be related to the network connection. (Something waiting for a timeout before continuing?) If you unplug the ethernet cable (and leave it unplugged), within a few minutes... the issue is gone... plug it back in... and a few minutes later... it comes back. Leaving the ethernet cable plugged in, the issue can also come and go through the day, seemingly at random periods. (Opens files perfectly fine for 20min, then back to lag for 20min).
I'm at a loss... the office has 6 workstations and a server as well as 6 networked printers... and each workstation appears to have this behavior intermittently and they do not coincide with one another. I've been able to duplicate the symptoms with the server offline... all printers offline... cable modem offline... (all at the same time, and invididually). The only sure fire way to get it to stop for good is to run windows in safe mode, or keep the network cable unhooked from the workstation.
Things tried so far besides unhooking the networked hardware are, ccleaner reg cleaning, AV/spyware scans, reset tcpip stack, disabled Qos, check to make sure windows firewall is disabled, even disabled all items in startup area of msconfig. No broken mapped drives under 'my computer' either. No luck.
------
A long time ago, I had a laptop (xp home) with similar behavior... could not open files by clicking on them on the desktop (of any type) without lag. The laptop also would not go to sleep when the lid was closed. The only way to trick it into sleeping was to close the lid... open it... and use internet explorer to browse to a website. Sometimes that would trigger the sleep mode instantly as the page began to load... other times, it would happen after a few minutes of browsing. If you did not do this... it would remain on with the lid closed overnight. The issue eventually disappeared on its own, never to return. Like the current situation... it seems related to the network connection somehow.
Sorry for the long post... this has been quite a battle so far. I would appreciate any advice you all may have!
Last edited by ZeroOne on 19th March 2010, 10:42 pm; edited 1 time in total