Question

Problems opening Excel and Word documents shared over a network - VERY SLOW

Asked by: wintersmith

I have a customer that uses several WIN XP PRO pc's with Office 2003, and they share documents from a folder residing on a server (SBS2008). The majority can open the files within 5 seconds or so. On at least three pc's, this can take as long as a minute or more.
They all access by clicking on a mapped drive on their pc, then click on the file to open it (Mostly Word and Excel files). Alternatively, if they open the program (Word or Excel), navigate to the file location, then open, the file opens instantly.

The only common denominator is that the pc's having the problem recently added an HP Plotter using the install disk.
I have:
1) Uninstalled the printer and all HP software
2) Run Detect and Repair on Office 2003
3) Reinstalled the printer using drivers ONLY
Of the three pc's affected, one is "on again/off again", one is stable for the moment, and the other has chronic issues opening the files.
Could the install of Windows have been affected, even with the complete removal of the software?
Other things I should mention:
1) All pc's are running Trend Client (if this were the issue, should be across the board)
2) Network connectivity does not appear to be an issue. EX: Email is not a problem, as all pc's access Exchange server

I'm stumped! Please help!!

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Asked On
2009-10-01 at 15:57:13ID24778825
Tags

Shared Documents

,

Network

,

Slow Opening

Topics

Microsoft Office Suite

,

Windows Networking

,

Microsoft Windows Operating Systems

,

Windows XP Operating System

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Answers

 

by: joaoalmeidaPosted on 2009-10-02 at 00:03:14ID: 25475641


Hi wintersmith,

Do you have different anti virus definitions/applications for those 3 PCs?

Regards,

Joao

 

by: wintersmithPosted on 2009-10-02 at 02:18:00ID: 25476195

No different anti virus on pc's. They are all on Trend Client.

 

by: noxchoPosted on 2009-10-04 at 04:35:35ID: 25488872

How quick does the MS Office open on problem machines? I am having this issue as well and it started with some MS updates for XP SP3. Not figured out it yet.

 

by: QlemoPosted on 2009-10-04 at 05:06:47ID: 25488946

I have the same effect, and it is not related to whether Office or the respective application is open already or not. At some point in time, opening files in Explorer will freeze Explorer for a minute or more. I suppose this is related to network drives or servers not reachable while checking for the default action to perform in registry ...

 

by: sarangk_14Posted on 2009-10-04 at 06:21:06ID: 25489114

Hi,

If you are using printers shared over the network or some of the font files are corrupted or missing, that could be the issue affecting opening time of word and excel documents.

Refer to this Microsoft article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;280821&Product=wrd20

Also request you to check whether the files open any faster if you close and reopen them, or whether the files take too long to open with the "requesting virus scan" message at the bottom left of the document window.

Hope this helps.

Warm regards,
Sarang

 

by: premillardPosted on 2009-10-05 at 08:33:05ID: 25496200

Take a look and see if you have printers on the bad computers that may no longer exist.
I had a similair issue when we upgraded our print server. Some of the clients were on vacation when we remapped them to the new print server so when they came back into the office the following week the experienced the same slowness. Once I disconnected the old printer connections the peoblem was solved.

 

by: joaoalmeidaPosted on 2009-10-06 at 01:38:01ID: 25502862

 

by: wintersmithPosted on 2009-10-06 at 12:35:20ID: 25508940

I found our solution here
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Office_Productivity/Office_Suites/MS_Office/Q_24149408.html?sfQueryTermInfo=1+dde+disabl+offic

We went to Folder Options, File Types, found the DOC and XLS extensions, and changed the Open command path.  Uncheck Use DDE, and on the path line removed /DDE and placed "%1" at the end.

All computers which were having this problem are working great now.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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