Precision 360 running XP Pro is SLOW

Question

We have just recently installed 5 Precision 360 Desktops w/ 1gb ram running XP Pro (factory install). They, along with other brands of desktops & laptops with XP Pro and Win2K OS's are connected to a LAN with a Win2K Server. ALL of the 5 Dell machines are running extremely slow, especially when worknig w/ Microsoft Office products - particularly Word, Excel, and Access. The machines run fine at boot up, but being to slow down as time passes. The eventually slow down where it takes MINUTES to open files, make an edit, etc Users's get frustrated and reboot to gain back their speed. The process begins all over. The duration of time from bootup to slow down varies. It can take from one to 4 hours.

Anyone having similar problems? Anyone have any solutions? We've had the problems since install.

Thanks,

Mark

mwogaman · Answer

Michael,

Thanks but no thanks. I've been there and many though many folks are having problems with XP Pro running slow, this has been an unanswered so far. We have tried all the solutions suggested to no avail. Therefore, I have called the Dell tech support and they've given me 2 options to try. One is to update the Bios version and the second is to update the NIC driver - both off the Dell web page.

Thanks,

Mark

MichaelCretired · Answer

mwogaman, Thanks for using the Dell Community Forum. I think you should probably post this question in the Windows XP board.  I think you would get a better response there.

yankeehip · Answer

Can you tell me how to get to the site you got this info from. I think we are experienceing the same problems and would like to try this and see if it works. We have done everything else and we still have the same problems. Thank you for any help that you can give us.

csp122 · Answer

Hey mwogaman,

We just purchased several hundred of these 360's... and every one of them exhibit the same problem you describe. They come straight *out of the box* with the NIC, USB, and UDMA controllers all sharing IRQ 18...

What appears to cause noticeable slow-downs for our users is when they save Office-Suite files to network shares or USB memory keys. They even occassionally get BSOD when copying files from the local HDD to a Sony 256MB USB memory key!

We just upgraded the BIOS to A03... still no joy!

We HAVE seen considerable benefit installing *plain vanilla* Intel 10/100Mbps PCI cards in each PC (on some other IRQ, such as 22), and disabling the integrated GigE controllers... no more BSOD, or goofy *slowness*.

Is anybody still fighting this battle?

Can we adjust the IRQs on these devices?

Why in the world would the NIC, USB, and UDMA controllers default to share IRQ 18?

Thanks.

mwogaman · Answer

Sorry, but the only web sites I checked were Microsoft's Tech Knowledge and Dell's Community Forum pages.  I finally resorted to calling Dell Tech Support as we purchased the 3 year plan but this is a case where we lost money - their two 'solutions' to try didn't work.

mwogaman · Answer

csp122,

We'll give it a shot and see what happens. We don't have any slow-down problems with other apps - just MS Office - so I'm not sure why sharing an IRQ can affect some programs and not others...

Thanks.

Ian DB · Answer

Hi Mwogaman (reposted - lost previous in previewing message) What network card type is in the offending PC's   Ian DB

Windows General

Precision 360 running XP Pro is SLOW

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