[ms office - 2003] Delayed Write Failed and other problems

[Griffo]

We are having a problem that is becoming more and more frequent.

 

The interesting thing is that it only occours in one IT suite.

 

Over the last few months both publisher and powerpoint have been having the delayed write failed problem when saving to the public or home drives, both located on the main server.

 

This I belive after reading up on it is due to a loss of the network connection at some point while the user is logged on.

 

Now that they have moved on to using access databases we now have a problem where a number of pupils databases have become corrupt. They are backed up daily so recovering them is not a problem, but is annoying and time consuming as I seem to have an extra 2 pupils with the problem each time.

 

The error is "The Microsoft Jet Database Engine Stopped the Process Because You and Another User are Attempting to Change the Same Data at the Same Time". Which also seems like it may be caused by this loss of network connection.

 

The interesting bit is that it only happens in this one room, which is identical to the other IT room next to it. Same PCs, same image, same software (with a few exceptions) XP Pro SP3, Office 2003 Pro, same updates, same patches, same VLAN, same switch, identical GPO policies the only difference being the name of the policy. Both rooms sit either side of the server room so they are equal distances in terms of cable run.

 

So why is it happening and why only in this one room???

 

Help??

 

Please????

[penfold]

Are they importing any data into the database? It can happen in the data is corrupt(or left blank) which could mean that the user is entering something incorrectly and thats why it is only showing in 1 room?

 

I've had a similar problem where the database crashed everytime they tried to run a report and it turned out that the pupils were copy & pasting data into cells without checking the structure properly. Couldn't find anything wrong with the database, but the content was causing the problem(Blank spaces entered instead of data). Although it looked ok at first glance, when you looked at the full data, it was holding allsorts of rubbish. Have you followed the instructions the pupils use yourself to see if you can recreate the problem?

[Griffo]

Good point, I shall check next time the room is free.

[DMcCoy]

Normally a busy windows server or a NAS box (usually with Samba) will cause this issue.

 

SMB requests do not have to be processed in order so if the server is slow (such as a basic NAS box) or very busy with other files then the connected workstation can timeout waiting for a SMB reply.

 

This can also happen with high load and SATA drives, sometimes SAS/SCSI are better due to more concurrent requests.

[Griffo]

A bit of an update on this. It will now happen with Serif software. The error messages given by serif are much more brief but it is the same problem. A corrupt file.

 

@DMcCoy, Cheers for that it is something to look into, I am aware the server does run a bit slow at times. But I don't see how that would only affect this one room still.

 

Thats the strangest bit of it, it happens very occasionally in other rooms but a couple of times a day now in this one particular room. Which Is perhaps leading me to think It could be GPO related or one of the extra bits of software this room has perhaps doing something.

 

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

[penfold]

Have you checked the disk to see if there is a problem with it?

[chris-t]

Switch starting to fail maybe or just needs a restart? Would account for it being mainly that room. If it happens on certain machines in the room try pinging that machine n see if it drops out throughout the day.... We have had similar problems (machines randomly losing and regaining connection), sometimes turning switch off for a few seconds n on again solves it, other times the switch was dying so had to be replaced.

 

Just a thought!