Slow initial log on and after that hanging whilst trying to sync

[speckytecky]

We have added some new Fujitsu Siemens XP Pro workstations to our Windows Server 2000 network recently - replacing some old Dell GX60's that were limited by only having 20GB hard Drives. A couple of problems arose today in testing.

 

First logging a new user on at the workstation for the first time the machines took an age to reach the desktop - close on 10 minutes I think. Subsequent log on's are fine (I presume this relates to when a local profile is in place). No log on scripts other than a small log on bat file.

 

Second problem relates to log off and the machine hanging until moved on trying to syncronise. We don't see this with the Dells so it has us puzzled?

 

Any ideas please folks.

[mullet_man]

Do you have roaming profiles? It will take a long time to load first time if the user has lots of data stored in their profile.

[speckytecky]

Do you have roaming profiles? It will take a long time to load first time if the user has lots of data stored in their profile.

 

Thanks but no sadly not that. Just plain old .dat profile.

[ahuxham]

Our users, with no profiles (Laptop users) generally take 10minutes to logon to domain machines other than their own personal laptops. I assume as a result of a profile needing setup.

 

Likewise with students, any student takes an age during initial login, but subsequent users login perfectly fast. Perhaps Nethood, Printhood, Default User get setup with the new profile.

 

1st Student slow login > 2nd+ Student Fast > 1st Staff slow login > 2nd+ Staff Fast > 1st Student slow login

 

(Student/Staff profiles are different for obvious reasons, less redirections)

 

It seems to be profile driven, when a different profile is loaded it seems to reset.

[ahuxham]

Thanks but no sadly not that. Just plain old .dat profile.

 

.dat implies roaming, dat is freely modifiable, by any user. Renaming the file to .man locks the profile, no more changes nor more changes during login.

 

I assume your slow login is a result of using the profile on different machines and the new machine settings, new application settings and the like are being copied back into the profile.

 

Mandatory (.man) stops this, and it forces the load of settings, thus resulting in faster logins.

 

Try a rename from .dat to .man and give it a go.

 

(Unless of course you have every user with their own .dat)

[speckytecky]

I'm now pretty sure that the sync problem is not profile but related to MS Office 2007. having tried a few man and dat log on's today I found that the problem only starts to happen after Office 2007 has been used. I'm not sure quite how to get round it as because it's not syncing the files it was trying to do (includes all Office 2007 packages) it hangs until clicking ignore releases it?

[Michael]

So just how large is the profile and over what connection are you logging on? 10/100 ethernet or wireless?

[speckytecky]

So just how large is the profile and over what connection are you logging on? 10/100 ethernet or wireless?

 

Thanks Michael,

 

What seems to be happening is once a roming Profile has been logged on and once Office 2007 has been activated the machine tries to sync all users that have a locally stored profile back to hte server. Which leads me to thinking it's Office 2007 related?

[Michael]

What seems to be happening is once a roming Profile has been logged on and once Office 2007 has been activated the machine tries to sync all users that have a locally stored profile back to hte server. Which leads me to thinking it's Office 2007 related?

 

I can't quite see how this is possible or how it would work. A user has a single roaming profile, which is downloaded from the server when you logon and uploaded back to the server when you logoff, but I am sure you know this already.

 

How did you install Office 2007? Did you use a CD-ROM, did you create a central installation point on the server or did you use an automated way to deploy the software?

 

I'm also thinking you're possibly using mandatory roaming profiles, so everytime someone logs on you get a small setup screen before Word, Excel etc actually start up as you'd expect. The way around this is to create a new profile, (using a test user), logon, run Office 2007's applications and Adobe Reader, then close these applications. Once you logoff, this information is saved to the profile.

From this point you could then rename NTUSER.DAT to NTUSER.MAN so the profile becomes read only.

 

I have one site, consisting of 5 users who are the only people who use Office 2007 with standard roaming profiles, so I see no reason why it shouldn't work for you too.

[speckytecky]

...

 

How did you install Office 2007? Did you use a CD-ROM, did you create a central installation point on the server or did you use an automated way to deploy the software?

 

I'm also thinking you're possibly using mandatory roaming profiles, so everytime someone logs on you get a small setup screen before Word, Excel etc actually start up as you'd expect. The way around this is to create a new profile, (using a test user), logon, run Office 2007's applications and Adobe Reader, then close these applications. Once you logoff, this information is saved to the profile.

From this point you could then rename NTUSER.DAT to NTUSER.MAN so the profile becomes read only....

 

QUOTE]

 

Office 2007 installed from CD.

 

I had problems with Office before when I ran it as a test user to create a profile. This resulted in the home directory of the test user being transferred across to the new user logging on and pulling up that default profie.

[Michael]

Don't give the test user a home directory, then repeat the process of logging on, running Office 2007 and then logging off. Then rename NTUSER.DAT to .MAN and allocate it to a secondary test user account which does have a home directory and it will work as expected.

[speckytecky]

Don't give the test user a home directory, then repeat the process of logging on, running Office 2007 and then logging off. Then rename NTUSER.DAT to .MAN and allocate it to a secondary test user account which does have a home directory and it will work as expected.

 

 

Thanks Michael. I'll give that a try next week.

 

In the meantime I think the slow linitial log on and my printer problem http://www.edugeek.net/forums/networks/23410-printers-wont-come-online.html might have resolved.

 

I found that the machines which were suffering this had not had an Admin powered user log on prior to the students. Taking out the effected student profile from Docs and Settings, logging on as Admin powered and checking the printers were accessible and on line. Then off and back on as the student seems to have resolved both the printer access and slow initial log on problem.