unacceptable wait to logon.

[jjohnsoncantell]

Greetings,

 

Im looking to solve a problem i have with the length of time it takes from windows booting to logon to actually being able to log on.

 

As it stands when a user gets to the windows logon screen they have to wait an average of 30 seconds before trying to log on else they get no domain controller available and cannot log on. There is a lot of disk activity and only when this has stopped will it actually let you log on. I have already changed the power management to mimimum and disabled the ability for windows to turn off the nic.

 

The clients are running win7 sp1, intel 3945 wireless nic on a meru network.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

James

[sonofsanta]

Have you enabled Computer Policy > Admin Templates > System > Logon > Always wait for network at startup and logon? The total time won't change but it should delay the login fields appearing until you can actually login

[sted]

Have you enabled Computer Policy > Admin Templates > System > Logon > Always wait for network at startup and logon? The total time won't change but it should delay the login fields appearing until you can actually login

 

might be worth checking with rsop if pc policies are even being applied at that stage might be timing out before it connects to the network

[jjohnsoncantell]

Thanks for your replies guys.

@sonofsanta yes that setting is enabled, however as soon as the clients reach the logon screen they can log straight on, the logon fields are there straight away.

@sted I was wondering if something like that was happening. I always thought the nic wasnt enabled until the main startup squence with the windows logo had finished.

[psydii]

Latest drivers?

Latest hotfixes? (Topic might not seem relevant but the list of hotfixes contained here: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/97140-windows-7-location-not-available-logon.html#post868272 fix a huge number of problems from the kernel through the entire network stack and up into USV layer)

Latest Meru System Director release?

 

Try profiling as per Tools for Troubleshooting Slow Boots and Slow Logons (sbsl) - TechNet Articles - United States (English) - TechNet Wiki compare with a known good machine (i.e not someting with an intel wifi chipset) and comparing with the misbehaving devices.

 

Also is ipv6 disbabled on your clients?

Edited November 14, 2012 by psydii

[psydii]

Well blow me down. I've just this moment had three 3945's be reported as exhibiting this exact same symptom. Obviously I've done all of the above previously and they have been working.... posting this before I've started any further diagnostics. If I figure it out I'll post back.

[psydii]

Update 1.

Got the user working by logging on/off as local admin. Device returned to service to avoid further disruption to T+L. Device should be returned for investigation after school. Noticed that the driver version was not as expected, and that ipv6 was enabled.

[psydii]

Update 2.

 

Driver version was in fact at the latest revision for the hardware. However the power saving settings were not as intended. (further investigation into the root cause of that needed - most likely a BAU mistake in managing policies). Corrected power setting and behaviour has now returned to normal.

 

IPv6 remains enabled, though likely to be disabled again once we addressed the root cause of the configuration variance.

[mhowell]

Hi James, please feel free to contact us directly [email protected]

Im not certain of your specifics, so if you could send them through with as much detail, that would be great. Not sure if this is your issue, but we've seen lots of schools update to Windows 7 over the summer, and to get best wireless performance the power management AND the adpater settings need to be set to power saving disabled...

MAny thanks

MArk

[jjohnsoncantell]

@psydii I have tried the drivers from manuf and also from intel direct, both exhibit the same problems. I have spoken with our wireless provider meru at length and they suggest turning off band steering which is funny as they suggested turning in on in the first place lol. Im not 100% sure if ip6 is disabled on the clients though so will have to check. Is there an easy way to disable via a gpo?

[PEO]

Hi, just to tackle this from a diffrent angle. do you deploy software through gpo? if so you might have a something not installing/uninstalling properly and thats what could be holding things up. Also is your gpo policies in the correct order?

[jjohnsoncantell]

@PEO I have attached a jpeg of the gpo order as it stands in the ou the clients sit in.

Im not 100% sure default domain policy is in the right place.

[PEO]

Anything in the event logs on a client with the issue?

[jjohnsoncantell]

only the usual domain controller cannot be found.. I have managed to sort most of these problems out by disabling band steering and a gpo to add a reg key to change the power management to off. Need to test more but this seems to have helped a lot as it seems the band steering was taking just that little bit too long in the startup and the network was not being found fast enough..