GalaxiePete
asked on
Computers Slow after turning a server off.
We are doing a server migration and recently demoted a multipurpose domain controller and turned it off. The DC was also a file and print server. These are all separated roles in the new infrastructure on their own virtualized systems (VMWare). The problem is that since we did that we are having issues with slowness in certain applications on some computers. The problem applications are AutoDesk Products, Printing and Microsoft Picture and Fax Viewer from Office 2003 on Windows XP workstations. If we turn the server back on the problems go away.
The problems:
Autodesk is just slow to open and open documents. Not horrendously slow but slow enough to be annoying. AutoCAD LT and Designer as well as TrueView are all affected. They are all 2010 version.
Printing on a handful of computers has long pauses. It is in particular a problem on our Shipping computers running UPS Worldship and the FedEx shipping software. The applications run fine but as soon as you print the label everything freezes in the application for about 10-20 seconds, the label prints and everything unfreezes 5-10 seconds later. This is a big problem for them but there are others with this same printing issue out of any application. We did find if there was a link to a shared printer still mapped on the desktop to the old server that would cause this problem and by removing it, the issue was fixed. However some computers did not have any existing bad links to printers on the old server.
In Microsoft Picture and Fax viewer (and some other image programs) users are going to open an image and it takes 3-5 minutes where they had opened instantaneously (3-4 seconds). If you use the default Preview application there is no delay. Apparently from looking around if you have a "bad" link on your desktop to a non-present network resource this will cause the problem. However I have not found any bad links to fix the problem. All the users desktop links are updated or didn't require updating. I found some in "My Documents" directories but that didn't fix the issue.
If we turn the server we demoted on, all these problems go away.
We have checked Net Use, DNS, & WINS. We looked for bad shortcuts on the desktop and in my documents. We have looked for bad ODBC links. I have done regedits to remove references to the old server. We have even tried removing the Anti-virus. I am seeing nothing that fixes it on certain trouble computers. The computers are all up to date on patches for Office and Windows.
Any ideas?
The problems:
Autodesk is just slow to open and open documents. Not horrendously slow but slow enough to be annoying. AutoCAD LT and Designer as well as TrueView are all affected. They are all 2010 version.
Printing on a handful of computers has long pauses. It is in particular a problem on our Shipping computers running UPS Worldship and the FedEx shipping software. The applications run fine but as soon as you print the label everything freezes in the application for about 10-20 seconds, the label prints and everything unfreezes 5-10 seconds later. This is a big problem for them but there are others with this same printing issue out of any application. We did find if there was a link to a shared printer still mapped on the desktop to the old server that would cause this problem and by removing it, the issue was fixed. However some computers did not have any existing bad links to printers on the old server.
In Microsoft Picture and Fax viewer (and some other image programs) users are going to open an image and it takes 3-5 minutes where they had opened instantaneously (3-4 seconds). If you use the default Preview application there is no delay. Apparently from looking around if you have a "bad" link on your desktop to a non-present network resource this will cause the problem. However I have not found any bad links to fix the problem. All the users desktop links are updated or didn't require updating. I found some in "My Documents" directories but that didn't fix the issue.
If we turn the server we demoted on, all these problems go away.
We have checked Net Use, DNS, & WINS. We looked for bad shortcuts on the desktop and in my documents. We have looked for bad ODBC links. I have done regedits to remove references to the old server. We have even tried removing the Anti-virus. I am seeing nothing that fixes it on certain trouble computers. The computers are all up to date on patches for Office and Windows.
Any ideas?
Lee W, MVP
Office documents have been known to have issues because they point to a server based template - when that server goes offline, it can take MINUTES to open a simple word document. I would be looking at the apps themselves to see if they, by default, attempt to save to or use resources on the down server.
ASKER
Thanks for the quick response. We are not having any issues with the office documents at all though. Just opening image files with Office related image viewers. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access - no issues. If there was a template issue we should have seen that a long time ago when we moved the files and templates.
SOLUTION
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Do the workstations have any apps installed that integrate tightly with Windows Explorer? Like if you right-click on a file or folder, are there options present that wouldn't be there in a default Windows setup. Maybe one of those apps is forcing Explorer to look at old network paths that no longer exist.
ASKER
I am going to give Qlemo's fake DNS Entry a shot. That is actually a great idea for a quick fix.
Dave, I checked a 3. One had 7zip integrated and the other 2 were clean.
I do want to point out that even after hitting the MRUs and cleaning up an old stray entry here and there I didn't see any difference. I am comparing the systems to two other systems that actually work when I hit the registry as well. All the systems have entries back to that server but only 1 in 4 is affected.
Dave, I checked a 3. One had 7zip integrated and the other 2 were clean.
I do want to point out that even after hitting the MRUs and cleaning up an old stray entry here and there I didn't see any difference. I am comparing the systems to two other systems that actually work when I hit the registry as well. All the systems have entries back to that server but only 1 in 4 is affected.
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ASKER
The hosts/dns entry option from Qlemo allowed me to fool the network computers into thinking they were making a connection. I solved the actual issues through the path I was already taking and Qlemo's thoughts.