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We have 19 Dell Optiplex 990's all with 16GB of RAM, and 2 1TB HDD in RAID. They have a 3rd Generation i7 processor.
The problem is, even having just one program, Word for example, open and just telling it to print a one page document, the whole computer begins the whole not responding on any open windows. It takes about 5 minutes for it to begin responding again.
Any suggestions as to what to look for on these machines?
[Edit] One computer just finished a Windows Memory diagnostic, it came back perfect, and I tested all the processors using PC Doctor, and it passed that as well.
Justin E
Posted 2013-09-26T17:17:21.577
Reputation: 103
That hardware is not nearly powerful enough for Microsoft Office. Just kidding. Update your drivers. Look in device manager. Any yellow bangs that represent devices with missing drivers? I'm guessing you have a serious driver SNAFU. – Ryan Ries – 2013-09-26T17:24:18.157
Just triple checked 3 computers and all of them have all drivers installed and up to date. Printing was just an example though...even watching a video, the computer stops responding. – None – 2013-09-26T17:27:27.063
Well that's obviously unacceptable behavior. But we don't have enough information to diagnose this. Do the professional thing and call your vendor and get them to explain how it is the PCs they sold you don't run Windows 7. – Ryan Ries – 2013-09-26T17:35:50.857
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Any suggestions as to what to look for on these machines?malware? Pull the drives temporarily, perform a clean Windows install, if a clean install is fine, then something is wrong in software. – Zoredache – 2013-09-26T17:38:47.9471I installed Deep freeze which isn't perfect on these machines, and run Symantec scans on them daily. I run updates once a week with Deep Freeze disabled. They don't have malware. Two of these machines have not even been connected to the internet, and external devices are disabled for security. I seriously doubt malware is the issue here.
Thanks for the suggestion though – None – 2013-09-26T17:49:42.830
Presumably the hard drives are in RAID 1? Are you able to pull one drive out of the RAID on one of the machines to see if it changes behavior? I have seen some very weird problems with built in chipset RAID 1 in the past (on Dell T3400's though not necessarily Dell specific I think it's the Intel RAID). – Joshua McKinnon – 2013-09-26T19:09:14.227
Can you clarify your question? It sounds like you have 2 issues; 1) Windows applications become processor intensive for unexplained reasons. 2) Printing causing Word to "Not Respond". Does that sound right? – None – 2013-09-26T20:28:17.420
I also suspect malware. Do an offline scan (Kaspersky rescue image for instance), since the malware may be able to hide from Symantec. – vasquez – 2013-09-27T11:22:18.923
@CIA, no it causes every application except explorer to stop responding. – Justin E – 2013-10-02T17:19:48.827