1

I am a technician in an organization of about 1000 users that me and my team support, last year we experienced a slow PC problem whereby computers would take about an hour to start up or would apply computer settings for that long. we tried all kinds of troubleshooting but couldn’t find the cause of the problem and it suddenly went away… I have just realized that since last month the problem started occurring again on a few computers. the network guys have upgraded the switches at a few sites, What can be the problem?

3 Spice ups
2

Can you provide more info, the information seems a bit scarce. Have you looked at Startup items and GPO policies, for those computers?

Have you tried to disconnect one of those computer from the network, and then try to start them, see if there are any differences?

1 Spice up
3

As SBP Romania said, please post more info.

Common system and hardware, are there a common place in the network or start time, etc.

4

As per SBP Romania’s reply, take one of the machines off of the network and see if that makes a difference (?)

What anti virus do you use?

5

quick check, we will assume you are on a domain

unplug from network, and use cached credentials to log on, once you log on, re-connect network cable to allow user to work

if using cached credentials is a lot quicker, you have a network bottleneck somewhere

you mention new switches being installed ? is this part of an upgrade across system ?

as that may be part of issue

6

Yes I have done all that, when you take out the lan cable the computer starts up properly when you put it back in and restart the pc than it does the same thing, i believe the are policies applied that are causing this problem but have been going through and cannot figure out exactly which problem it is

7

I use Symantec end point

8

The new switches are part of a upgrade that was done,

9

You really do need to provide as much information as possible about your environment. Please read Asking Better Questions for some helpful information on how to best ask a question - Asking Better Questions

While we are waiting for that information, you may look at this - Windows 7 Slow Boot

Specifically - Windows 7 Slow Boot

took a machine that was experiencing this exact issue this morning and i set the DNS server settings to statically point to my 2 AD servers and the user was able to log in just fine. As far as my DHCP options for DNS goes, im assigning all PCs my primary DC as the primary DNS and i have a secondary DNS of 8.8.8.8 and a tertiary of 4.2.2.2. Im assuming that for whatever reason, the PCs that are having this issue are jumping over to use the secondary and maybe even tertiary DNS servers but since they are not AD DNS servers, the profile just hangs until it makes it round back to the primary DNS server.

The “why does Windows not always pick the primary DNS server” “fiasco” is coincidently being discussed in this other thread: DNS and small environments …this “feature” has been the way it is for a long time. …my take on it, if I’m not being obvious enough, is you should NEVER specify non-AD-integrated-DNS-servers on end-user devices - because of the chance they will pick another one (2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.) and then not able to resolve any internal FQDN’s from that point on. …and your internal DNS server(s) should ALWAYS be “given” to the client via DHCP or via Group Policy - setting the DNS server IPs statically can cause you problems if the end-user device visits other networks (especially wireless hotspots or public networks) and this can also be considered a security risk.

As an aside, mixing different DNS providers (8.8.8.8 vs. 4.4.4.2 vs. your ISP vs. something else) under the forwarders tab on your AD-integrated-DNS-server, I don’t like that either - sure, everyone thinks the more you add makes it “more fault tolerant” which I suppose is true, but your also introducing problems with geo-location and global server load balancing. For example 8.8.8.8 will usually be the best bet to accurately route your YouTube traffic to the nearest Google datacenter, making videos stream the fastest, but your ISP, or 4.4.4.2 (who is probably NOT your ISP BTW) won’t necessary make the best choice, and you can be directed to a geographically further datacenter, and thus adversely affect load times. I would test your upstream DNS server using GRC's | DNS Nameserver Performance Benchmark   or Google Code Archive - Long-term storage for Google Code Project Hosting. and stick with whatever provider is fastest.

10

Thanks

11

Check any GPO that might be failing and go to see your sys admin for answers. Network switches changes means that sometime (ok ok ALL THE TIME) some route is not set correctly or something is being blocked by mistake.

that will slow you down

1 Spice up
12

I have seen that issue caused by folder redirection GPO’s. May not be the cause in your case but the symptoms are the same.

1 Spice up
13

Just a straw to clutch at but last time I saw this it was down to a borked GPSI deployment of a Java Runtime update. Ended up having to manually strip Java off all affected machines and redeploy. Luckily wasn’t a massive site.

Just came to mind as you mentioned the hang was at ‘Applying Computer Settings’, as was mine.

14

Try statically assigning the DNS on one of the desktops to test.

15

yeah looks like a GPO or DNS/DHCP issue to me