cubbies

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OK, first of all, I work in IT and have for a number of years now. I am no expert, but certainly no slouch either. However, this problem has everyone in our department stumped.

We first noticed the problem when we got a new computer for one of our VP's. He works in the design department. We have a network drive (M: drive) that is our file storage. Each department has their own folder and there is a public folder. Whenever he would open his My Computer and go to the M: drive and click on the Design folder, it lags for a long time...45 seconds or more. What makes this even more weird is that it also re-maps the drive two more times. So, when he goes to his M: drive and clicks on it and it lags, then you go back to My Computer, you now have the M: drive, the Z: drive and the Y: drive...all mapped to the same place. And the Z and Y were not there before.

At first, I thought it was a problem with HP. I got the VP's laptop back from him and tested it...sure enough it didn't work. Then on my Lenovo desktop I tested it and it works fine. I go to the M: drive, click on the Design Folder and it opens right up. However, I am running Vista Business and he is running XP Pro, so I figured it was not a very good test. So I told my boss about the problem and on his Dell Desktop with XP Pro, he tested it and everything worked fine. So I called HP hoping that maybe they had seen the problem and that they had a fix. No such luck, they sent me to the research department and they are "looking into it". However, it turns out that it is not just an HP problem. I just got a Dell laptop back from a jobsite and it is having the same issue. And after doing some more research, we found the problem on two other desktops...both HP.

Here is what I have tried:

I have formatted the machine back to just a bare XP Pro SP1 machine with only basic drivers. Installed the Ethernet driver, joined the domain, added a user and logged in...doesn't work. I tried creating a dummy user in Active Directory who was a member of nothing, just a domain user who had no startup scripts or anything, just a dummy user. Logged in as him and same problem, didn't work. I tried installing an external NIC from a different manufacturer and disabling the onboard one...same problem. I am having a real hard time linking it to any of the client hardware or software.

So, I have to assume that it is a network issue. We just recently, in the last month or so, virtualized our entire network. I don't know enough about this process to know if there could be any issues stemming from this or not, and I certainly wouldn't know how to go about fixing it. The weird problem is is that even though there are a good number of machines that this happens to, there is an equal number that it does not happen to. It doesn't appear to be an user issue because if I log onto a working machine with a user that it was not working for, it works.

Actually, as I was tying this my boss came over and through some processes of elimination we have decided that this issue definitely popped up BEFORE the fileserver was virtualized.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to give as many details as possible.

I am open to any solutions. Anyone care to take a stab at this one?

david_42

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Does the problem move with the network drop? Which is to say, if you unplug a system that isn't having a problem & plug in one that has a problem & vis versa, do the results change?

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CyclingCraig

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It is possible a network routing problem? Paths not configured optimally?

each time you connect to the network drive it takes a different path and thinks it's a different drive so it maps it to a new drive letter? something like that?

MikeFlynn74

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Id check his account settings just to make sure they are exactly how they should be.

Is the drive mapped via scripting? Check his script specifically

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JVD_X

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I would check with VMWare or whomever you virtualization provider is - to see if this is a known defect.

BTW - great move going virtual but I usually ask our clients to start small by virtualizing their test environments first.

If you are talking about VLAN and not virtualization that I would agree with CyclingCraig - you have network configuration issues... probably one of your routers is not properly configured.

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cubbies

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Yes the problem does move. My boss' computer (dell desktop, XPP) works, if I connect a system that doesnt work to it, it doesnt work.

rdwj

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cubbies

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For our users, the maps are scripted; however, I created a dummy user and manually mapped the drive and the problem still occurred.

cubbies

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Not exactly. The original drive (M: ) is always there. However, when you try to open one of the folders (and it is not all the folders ont he drive, just a couple) it lags and creates two new drives (Z and Y), but they are mapped to the same place as M:.

MA_Brewer

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Does the OU that the computer is in have any funky group policies applied?

You say you logged on using a dummy AD user account, but how did you get to the network location? Tools>Map Network drive from explorer? Or did you manually kick off a script?

What if you don't join the machine to the domain, and just type the UNC into explorer ie \\server\share$ - what happens then?

Are you using the FQDN for the mapping, IE server.domain.com or just the machine name?