I have been having some massive problems with a work computer and the in-house IT hasn't been able to fix anything. Before I say what's wrong, let me explain what we've done to fix it:
1) Reinstalled MS-Office
2) Reinstalled Windows 7
Ok, here's the (shortlist) of the problems I have been having.
1) When trying to access a network drive I get this green bar moving slowly across the explorer bar. It takes about 15-30 seconds to get across, I can't open the file until it goes across. This seems to be specific to a single server. I intermittantly lose access to this server even though the drive is mapped. Other people do not seem to have these problems.
2) When logging into my account I can sometimes get a blank desktop (no taskbar or desktop items). Sometimes it will sit like this for a good 2-3 minutes. If I pull my smartcard out and log back in it seems to speed up the desktop load.
3) Internet Explorer (8) constantly crashes regularly and exhibits huge memory leaks. This may be normal. Right now its doing something new where the file menu dissapears at random.
4) Windows explorer freezes up and crashes on a regular basis. Renaming a file can take 2-10 seconds. (Just now Windows Explorer has lost the desktop and all of the network drives. all that shows up is "Favorites" and "Libraries". Been doing this for like 5 minutes)
5) MS Graph (the component that draws graphs for MS Access and Powerpoint) seems to be crashing in certain very repeatable situations. There is nothing exotic about the graph I am drawing.
6) My event viewer is showing a LOT of errors. Within the course of 5 minutes it generated 1600 critical errors for the Lync system. The drivers for the smart card system generate hundreds of errors each time I log in. Yesterday my computer generated 2k admin errors, 2k application errors, etc. I don't know if this is normal.
7) Once after a particularly bad crash of Windows Explorer my computer ran through a chkdisk. It found massive amounts of errors. When I sent my computer to go back in for reinstalling the OS the tech told me that the HD checked out.
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I have no clue what is going on. My IT department is good at some things but I can't get much help from them on this. Without admin access I have to symptomatically diagnose this problem.
Anyways, does this sound recognizable to anyone (specifically #1, #2, and #4)? I'm thinking possibly a NIC error (although it pings fine), or a user account corruption, or some hardware failure. I'm hesitant to suggest software problems since the stuff was reinstalled.
#2
CrimsonSoul
If it's doing all this after a reformat I'd think K it's hardware related. I bad ram or something?
#3
strawman
It all seems to point toward network issues.
Using a new Ethernet cable, attach the machine to another Ethernet jack, and see if things improve. If not, log into this machine with a different users account.
#4
Necronic
If I had access to Prime95 I could sort that out in a second.
Edit: I'm going to try another ethernet plug
#5
Gared
Yep, you've got a network issue. Used to get them occasionally when Corpnet was struggling for one reason or another. I'm with Steiny. Check a different ethernet cable or port. If you're still having problems with that network drive, see if anyone else is having trouble with it. If so, it's either the computer/server where the drive is located or the company's network. If not, there's a problem with your computer's ability to run on the network. The same network issue can cause the blank desktop problem.
#6
PatrThom
It sounds like file-access issues. Whether this is because of a disk or network error is going to require isolation (different cable, different machine, etc).
Start with the cable. It shouldn't be too hard to see whether your connection requires frequent retransmission before you have to start ripping out hardware or pulling cable.
