Windows 7 share slow

time

Storage? I am Storage!
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We use a spare Windows 7 Pro box as a small workgroup server, with a couple of file shares and a couple of database server processes (although we're typically only using one at a time). Some time in the last few weeks, it's become frustratingly slow to respond. And there are weird issues when viewing a share from other PCs:

1. When you try to rename a file, it auto-selects the entire file name when you press a key, so the character you press replaces the file name ... this drives us crazy.
2. The explorer view of the share is constantly refreshing (progress bar across the top) - as soon as it has finished, it starts again.

About 3 weeks ago, right-clicking on *anything* in explorer, including desktop shortcuts, would display the 'hourglass' and just never come back. The only solution was to kill Explorer and launch a new instance. The sole exception was the Recycle Bin icon. The problem was still there even when running in Safe Mode *with* Networking, but finally went away in Safe Mode with networking disabled.

We disabled all non-Microsoft startup processes and that also worked. We then re-enabled all the processes, a couple at a time, but it continued to work even after all the processes had been re-enabled. So there was no nett change but the problem resolved without giving us any clue to the cause.

The corporate A/V is McAfee. I really wanted it to be that, but disabling on-access scanning made no difference then and makes no difference to the current issues. We've also run the Eset online scanner, but it hasn't found anything in the first hour anyway (we ran it twice, but the results aren't there to view when we come back after a few hours - which might be suspicious).

Could well be a bad Microsoft update, but how on earth are we supposed to find which one?
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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First thing is that this does not sound familiar, but have you tired running SFC or swapping in a different NIC and/or the network port the thing is running on? I'm guessing that if you're using a desktop machine for a file server, you don't have anything too serious going on with the network side of things, but let's check anyway. You might also turn on switching to the high compatibility sharing option which IIRC is under Advanced Sharing options someplace.
Also, is anything weird going on as far as name resolution? Does this box have static addresses?
 

Chewy509

Wotty wot wot.
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Are you using home groups for the workgroup, or using legacy sharing? (I've seen instances similar with very poor transfer performance when using the home group feature. Removing and re-adding the desktop to the home group fixed most of the issues).
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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I've also seen Homegroups get really slow but ony when they're actually using the Homegroup namespace for the data transfers. Never seen it impact normal SMB.
 

time

Storage? I am Storage!
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It's on a domain. We only use "Advanced Sharing", which I imagine is legacy SMB.

I should point out that we've been using it in the current location for about 10.5 months. It's only in the last few weeks that it's gone all weird - quite possibly after I brought it up to date with Windows updates (it was about a year behind).
 

Chewy509

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Barring some sort of physical issue with the NIC, cable or switch, haven't seen that scenario myself. I guess things to check would be:
Firewall settings.
IP configuration including possible duplicate IP addresses.
Rebuild the IP stack. Eg http://www.velocitymicro.com/SupportArticles/Article_959.php
Clear the ARP caches on the LAN and switch.
Reinstall device drivers.
Recheck security software setup especially if your version installs a firewall or packet inspection driver.

Also could be bad ram... Or a corrupt DLL somewhere...
 
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