Replies

Good evening all. Ok, now for the odd wrap up. This problem seems to have somehow taken care of itself. I have no explanation other than to say yesterday I sent quite a large file from puter #1 to #2, expecting it to take 1/2 an hour to an hour, yet it took less than a couple of minutes to transfer. Have since tested with other files (and sizes) and everything is working pretty much as I would expect. To my knowledge no tweaking had been done on either system since testing your suggestions Stuart. All the same, thanks for your thoughts JS and Stuart. If I somehow come across an explanation I’ll post it. Michael.

Good evening all. Ok, now for the odd wrap up. This problem seems to have somehow taken care of itself. I have no explanation other than to say yesterday I sent quite a large file from puter #1 to #2, expecting it to take 1/2 an hour to an hour, yet it took less than a couple of minutes to transfer. Have since tested with other files (and sizes) and everything is working pretty much as I would expect. To my knowledge no tweaking had been done on either system since testing your suggestions Stuart. All the same, thanks for your thoughts JS and Stuart. If I somehow come across an explanation I’ll post it. Michael.

Hi Stuart. Thanks for the reply. Basically I did all that you suggested. I don’t believe the issue is a local one. Also, forcing each computer between half/full duplex ( and combinations between the two ) made no difference either. Interestingly perhaps, I discovered last night while printing a large graphic file from puter#1 to puter#2(print server), the data transfer speed was fine yet if I try to send a copy of the same file to puter#2 hard drive the problem persists. I have run up to date virus scans and ad-aware on both machines with clean results so am still looking for configuration clues.

Hi Stuart. Thanks for the reply. Basically I did all that you suggested. I don’t believe the issue is a local one. Also, forcing each computer between half/full duplex ( and combinations between the two ) made no difference either. Interestingly perhaps, I discovered last night while printing a large graphic file from puter#1 to puter#2(print server), the data transfer speed was fine yet if I try to send a copy of the same file to puter#2 hard drive the problem persists. I have run up to date virus scans and ad-aware on both machines with clean results so am still looking for configuration clues.

Hi all, thought the least I could do was ‘put this puppy to bed’ now with a final outcome. Basically, having gone through months of testing this, deleting that, updating the other etc etc looking for what I 100% thought could only be a software problem/clash I found it all came down to an intermittently troublesome CPU. Have a new CPU running now and everything is back to normal and I could not be happier. Many thanks once again to all those who offered very reasonable suggestions and help. Michael.

Hi all, thought the least I could do was ‘put this puppy to bed’ now with a final outcome. Basically, having gone through months of testing this, deleting that, updating the other etc etc looking for what I 100% thought could only be a software problem/clash I found it all came down to an intermittently troublesome CPU. Have a new CPU running now and everything is back to normal and I could not be happier. Many thanks once again to all those who offered very reasonable suggestions and help. Michael.

Good evening all. Good news, got it sorted out, well, for the most part anyway. Tried reinstalling which went very smoothly but did not fix the problem. Banged head for a while, scratched head for a while and decided to format the drive and wind back to the old image and work forward. As I built the old image back up to include all my current apps etc checked for the problem along each step. Bingo !! Problem occurred again after installing a software bundle for my camera. The bundle has 6 or 7 individual apps and I have not had time yet to narrow it down but hey, the upshot is I have at least found the source. I checked for driver updates and found none at the manufacturers site so I assume the driver is current. Guess I’ll uninstall the lot and load them back in one at a time to find the offending critter and take it up with the company. Once again, thanks everyone for the valuable thoughts and suggestions. I genuinely appreciate it. Ciao for now – Michael

Evening punters…..Doc, I never even considered installing over the top of the current OS yet I have the original OS disk. Have never done it before as all my past problems were full blown and always led to a full reinstall. You are right in saying that much work has gone into this machine in the last 12 months and while it can all be done again, time does become a factor. I think I’ll give it a shot as it seems to make the most sense and at least gives me a fighting chance at keeping what I have and solving the silly problem. What’s the worst that can happen……..( don’t answer that ). I’ll back up my data first of course. Ilona, thanks for the thoughts, obviously very fresh in your mind. I would have disabled the virus software but now, after reading your input I think I’ll remove virus, firewall and Norton Util’s completely before going ahead. All easily put back in place. I won’t be able to do all this for a week or two due to time, work, family and all the normal blah blahs but I will let you know the outcome. Thanks again everyone, been very helpful and above all, kept common sense in the picture.

Evening punters…..Doc, I never even considered installing over the top of the current OS yet I have the original OS disk. Have never done it before as all my past problems were full blown and always led to a full reinstall. You are right in saying that much work has gone into this machine in the last 12 months and while it can all be done again, time does become a factor. I think I’ll give it a shot as it seems to make the most sense and at least gives me a fighting chance at keeping what I have and solving the silly problem. What’s the worst that can happen……..( don’t answer that ). I’ll back up my data first of course. Ilona, thanks for the thoughts, obviously very fresh in your mind. I would have disabled the virus software but now, after reading your input I think I’ll remove virus, firewall and Norton Util’s completely before going ahead. All easily put back in place. I won’t be able to do all this for a week or two due to time, work, family and all the normal blah blahs but I will let you know the outcome. Thanks again everyone, been very helpful and above all, kept common sense in the picture.

Hi Doc, Al and Cowboy……me yet again ! Firstly, thanks for continuing to pursue this annoyance. Doc, thanks for the thoughts and as it stands I have 123 fonts installed which is actually too many for my needs but I have not added any, to my knowledge, for many moons. I keep the drives on this machine pretty clean with regular clean-ups and defrags (Al made me think I may have been overdue for a defrag, which I did to be sure but no dice). Scandisk shows no problems. Also, I don’t use and have never had McAfee virus software. I think I’ll give this a little longer to see if any more thoughts come in but I guess I’m looking at backing up my files and going back to a really old image file. Never mind, learnt one thing………….image more frequently !!! Just thought it may have been a prob that someone might say ‘ bingo, I know that one ‘. Thanks people – Michael

Hi Doc, Al and Cowboy……me yet again ! Firstly, thanks for continuing to pursue this annoyance. Doc, thanks for the thoughts and as it stands I have 123 fonts installed which is actually too many for my needs but I have not added any, to my knowledge, for many moons. I keep the drives on this machine pretty clean with regular clean-ups and defrags (Al made me think I may have been overdue for a defrag, which I did to be sure but no dice). Scandisk shows no problems. Also, I don’t use and have never had McAfee virus software. I think I’ll give this a little longer to see if any more thoughts come in but I guess I’m looking at backing up my files and going back to a really old image file. Never mind, learnt one thing………….image more frequently !!! Just thought it may have been a prob that someone might say ‘ bingo, I know that one ‘. Thanks people – Michael

Evening, me again……….In short, I have done, or had previously done, all of the things suggested. The defrag suggestion initially made me think ‘bingo’ but unfortunately no dice. A suggestion was made to me about changes to DMA settings but there have been none. I guess I have 2 options from here. I’ll probably just go with it and see if I can nut it out because in the scale of things it’s not a huge deal, just an annoyance. I have an image file of the disk but it is over 12 months old and after that period of time it’s almost like going back to a reinstall with the way I use this machine. If anyone wants to persue this, please feel free but if not, devote the time to serious issues. Thanks for your help, much appreciated – Michael

Evening, me again……….In short, I have done, or had previously done, all of the things suggested. The defrag suggestion initially made me think ‘bingo’ but unfortunately no dice. A suggestion was made to me about changes to DMA settings but there have been none. I guess I have 2 options from here. I’ll probably just go with it and see if I can nut it out because in the scale of things it’s not a huge deal, just an annoyance. I have an image file of the disk but it is over 12 months old and after that period of time it’s almost like going back to a reinstall with the way I use this machine. If anyone wants to persue this, please feel free but if not, devote the time to serious issues. Thanks for your help, much appreciated – Michael

Hi Boehme. I’m no expert here but here are 2 possible causes. Your video card may not support anything higher than 640×480 which is pretty unlikely unless it is prehistoric ( might want to check the card specs if you can find them ). Second, assuming the card supports higher res the display drivers may be corrupted so I would suggest you reinstall the the drivers from the disk that came with the card or from the manufacturers site. The latter is probably a better option as the drivers may have been updated anyway.

Hi Boehme. I’m no expert here but here are 2 possible causes. Your video card may not support anything higher than 640×480 which is pretty unlikely unless it is prehistoric ( might want to check the card specs if you can find them ). Second, assuming the card supports higher res the display drivers may be corrupted so I would suggest you reinstall the the drivers from the disk that came with the card or from the manufacturers site. The latter is probably a better option as the drivers may have been updated anyway.