Lag/delay when browsing directories

I'm putting this in software because I'm thinking that this has to be a software issue though I'm not sure.

I have a user that when attempting to browse certain network folders it experiences delay in displaying the contents of the folder and files accessed from these network locations also experience a delay when they are accessed (i.e. a QuickBooks file).

This does not appear to be a network issue. I have plugged the machine into two separate network ports on the switch. The user still experiences the lag. If the same user logs in on another computer using the same network port(s) she does not experience the lag.

I have run virus and malware (MalwareBytes) scans but both came up clean.

RAM and processor usage and both were in acceptable performance range.

I've defragmented the hard drive (not that I think it would have made a difference but, I did anyway).

I increased the page file size.

I have brought in a different NIC and this did not help anything.

The system is running Windows XP SP3 on a Dell Optiplex 390, 2.9 GHz processor w/2GB RAM.

If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you.

 

Are you using MAPS for the shares on the machine that is having problems? Are there MAPS on that machine of shared resources that are not connected (little red x)? Are there any MAPS on the machine that is giving trouble of shared resources that do not exist any longer?

 

One other thing.......are there other machines on the network using these same folders/shares/files?

 

I'm not sure what you mean by MAPS I guess. If what you mean is mapped network drives then there are two drive mappings to shared network resources. The mappings look fine and there is no red "x".

To answer your other question, there are others accessing the same file locations but no one seems to have a problem except the one individual.

 

Are you able to put another user on the affected computer and if so do they experience the lag as well?

 

Yes, other users will experience the same lag when logged in to that PC. Of course they do not experience the same problem on their regular PC nor does the user of the affected PC run into the lag problems on other PCs.

 

How about safe mode with networking....same thing? Are the machines on a domain?

 

If anything Safe Mode w/Networking performs worse it seems.

Yes the machines are on a Domain.

 

Are the shares that you are accessing mapped to drives or are they searched via shortcuts? Is it one particular share or all of them? If they are drive maps can you disconnect them one at a time to determine if one particular one is causing your problem?

Also, have you tried disabling the indexing service in XP????

 

They are drive maps and not all directories seem to present the problem, only certain ones. I did check and the indexing service is disabled.

 

OK. Here's where the real work begins. We are now assuming that some directories create the problem with the XP machine. I assume the directories that are giving a problem are on a server, yes? We need to change some things up to change the symptoms and try to isolate.

Here is the direction I would go in. Have the administrator copy the problematic directory and all its sub-directories to another place and name it something else. Map a share on the troubled XP machine to that new directory and give it a try. If it does not fail with the new directory then you know the problem is with the original directory, either because of some other people accessing it and causing an issue or with the data itself where it originally resides.

 

Sorry I haven't been able to get back to you yet, things are getting crazy. Yes, the directories are on a server. I will need to get with our administrators to see if they can (or will) copy the directory for me like you state. Question though, would the same result occur if I simply made a copy, say to another machine and map it to that machine share, thus not needing to get the admins involved if they don't want to be?

 

Sure that should work. Trying to see if its some combination of data and/or data location thats giving you XP machine fits.

 

Well, we've decided to replace the system after all. It definitely seems to be something with the system so we are just going to replace it.

I appreciate all the feedback.

Thank you.

 

Sorry we couldn't get to the bottom of this. Good luck.