XP Pro problem

[Zero Tolerance]

All...

I am having a strange problem on 1 of the new PC's I have installed in a department here at work.

This is a brand new preloaded IBM ThinkCentre....its got 256mb RAM and a P4 2.8 CPU running XP Pro.

The machine is SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW as molases....everything operates...just very SLOWWWWWWWWWWW

I have tweaked the services some like messenger service like i do on every install of XP.

Now this is the funny part....If I turn off / disable the "Print Spooler"...the machine FLYYYYYYYSSSSS!!!!!!!! But as soon as I re-enable / Start the "Print Spooler" its back to molases again.

This machine has one HP Laserjet 2200 connected to LPT1 and is shared to 2 other computers on the network and that is IT! It also connects to a local printer on my unix system here too.

Like I said it works fine..no lockups etc....just is slow when the printspooler is running.

Any ideas?

[Greg]

I'd go after a new driver for that printer and verify the same version of the driver is on all three machines.

[Dave420]

yes -check the driver -also look to see if norton 2004 is installed-it is a total hog on resources.also if it is a newer hp laserjet ,it should have plenty of memory onboard(16 megs)-so the windows spooler may not be needed.

[Zero Tolerance]

Thanks guys...I will check all of that tomorrow...I have been too busy to do it today

Ill report my findings!

[Zero Tolerance]

UPDATE:

Well I tried changing the driver and that did not help one bit

I also removed the printer from the other machines that connect to this one.....no change

I disconnected the printer and driver from SAID machine.....no change

I disconnected the machine from the Unix server.....no change

Conclusion: No matter what I do...as long as the the Print Spooler is "Started"...it totally hogs the CPU. I am now thinking that it is a problem with the OS and will just have to call IBM for assistance.

I can bring up the system monitor and watch via graph the reaction....

Print Spooler Off....CPU usage in idle is around 2%
Print Spooler ON....CPU usage goes thru the roof...100%

Here is a screenie of the CPU usage. As you will be able to see...the jump in CPU usage is phenominal!

[Dave420]

maybe the spooler got infected with a trojan?if you disconnect the pc from the network -does it still use up the cpu clocks?

[Zero Tolerance]

Dave....I thought exactly that....however this is a workstation in our medical records so I have disabled inet on it. It was only connected to the inet when I unboxed it and downloaded the patches that it didnt have already installed from IBM

I have seen alot of computers in my time...set up hundreds if not thousands...and I have never seen this problem.

Oh....and yes....it does it when its not connected to cat5 at ALL....I thought I mentioned that above.

Anyway....I had a few extra machines that hadnt been unboxed, so this morning I got another one out and set it up.....everything is fine now. Although I still have this machine with the spooler problem......guess I will have to call IBM about it and just have them ship me a replacement.

These machines we leased from IBM and they dont even come with a restore disc. Go Figure :S

[Zero Tolerance]

Well I thought that I would update this thread while I had some idle time this morning.

I fixed the machine...even though these machines did not come with a restore disc...there was a Function that will completely restore the OS and some added software upon bootup. I also found out that I can burn a copy of this onto cdrom.

Anyway...I got tired of trying to figure out why a brand new machine would act in this way and after finding out the information on re-installing the OS...that is exactly what I did. After that it is working perfectly.

Go Figure

[Dave420]

musta been just a bad file ...don't ya love M$

[Zero Tolerance]

yup..MicroSlop RULES!