User's PC is unstable
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I thought of something else that in unique to this user.
She VPNs in from home (VPN to the firewall) and RDPs into her desktop several times a week. She uses a work provided laptop (only thing that has the VPN client setup on it) to make this connection.
She's been doing this for more like 15 years... so for the first 5 years of her doing it, she was in the old building, not having any of these weird issues.
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Maybe this is crazy, but thought I'd throw it out there.
Is it possible to move this PC to another part of the building for a couple of days? Either have the user move with it or RDS into it while it's in a different office or server room, etc.?
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I'll just toss this out there too.
about 5 years ago - Dymo Label printer software was added to our machines..
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@CCWTech said in User's PC is unstable:
Maybe this is crazy, but thought I'd throw it out there.
Is it possible to move this PC to another part of the building for a couple of days? Either have the user move with it or RDS into it while it's in a different office or server room, etc.?
Yeah, it's really coming down to something like that.
She already RDPs into from where ever - I just mentioned that she RDPs from home, from a work provided laptop - but she also does that from a PC in our other building from time to time.. not so much in the past year though (her spot to use over there is no longer available).
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@IRJ said in User's PC is unstable:
@Dashrender said in User's PC is unstable:
@IRJ said in User's PC is unstable:
@Dashrender said in User's PC is unstable:
@IRJ said in User's PC is unstable:
@Dashrender said in User's PC is unstable:
@IRJ said in User's PC is unstable:
@Dashrender said in User's PC is unstable:
@IRJ said in User's PC is unstable:
@scottalanmiller said in User's PC is unstable:
Common factors are: user and Excel.
Assuming other users use Excel for the same spreadsheets without issues, common factor is just the user.
My thoughts exactly after reading through this whole thread.
If I was in @Dashrender position, I would push for a hosted app solution for this user. Deep down we know it is the user, but using a hosted solution gives this user (in this case, your boss) no more chances to correlate the issue to excel. Only one constant remains and at this point it wont even need to be noted because it will be obvious.
I would buy O365 license for one month and have the user test out using on Excel Online.
OK - Let's say I stand up a RDSH server - what lock downs do you do on the server to 'prevent the user from screwing up the system'?
i.e. how is she screwing up a local PC as a non admin, where she won't be able to on an RDSH box?
or are you suggesting that I move all of her excel files into OneDrive for Business and force her to use Excel Online?
We have a pretty good feeling it is the user, but this is the next logical step in troubleshooting. Having someone who is having constant issues test doing something differently for a week isn't the end of the world. Someone mentioned earlier that she is going to have to make some type of sacrifice if she wants the issue to be diagnosed.
You didn't answer the question - at min - which option are you pushing? building a RDSH server and moving her to that, or buying O365 and moving all of her files to OD4B and using Excel Online?
I am recommending O365 as a troubleshooting step as it is the path of least resistance and work.
So keep their current PC - and just move their files to the cloud - and see if the problems go away? What exactly does that prove?
I'm sitting down ready to get blasted for how stupid I must be for asking.
You are separating the PC problem from the suspected excel problem.
OK - You've focused entire to much on Excel - sure the crux of the issue has been around Excel - but the problems are in no way limited to Excel. They affect all parts of the system.
When using Outlook - the system will be super slow to respond, bring up data from Exchange (Outlook is in online mode only).
When using Explorer to search network drives, they will be slow to bring up search results, or slow to respond to moving files from one folder to another.
When printing - sometimes the print job never happens or errors out.The only thing I can think that she doesn't complain about - it surfing the web - that seems to work OK.
You're telling me all systems that this person has used have these issues across the board?
The very first machine she had clearly ended up having a hardware issue, as it's sound card that was onboard finally has issues enough that HP replaced the mobo to resolve the sound issue. All future machines have been replaced without any definitive proof there was any hardware issue.
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Remove AV from her pc, and disable built-in Defender. If she's not doing anything questionable, she should be fine, and you'll cross out one thing that could be causing issues.
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@marcinozga said in User's PC is unstable:
Remove AV from her pc, and disable built-in Defender. If she's not doing anything questionable, she should be fine, and you'll cross out one thing that could be causing issues.
OK I'm willing to try that.
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Wireshark.
Especially useful if you can make a problem appear on demand.
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@Pete-S said in User's PC is unstable:
Wireshark.
Especially useful if you can make a problem appear on demand.
yeah - sadly, can't.
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@Dashrender said in User's PC is unstable:
@black3dynamite said in User's PC is unstable:
It's been years ago, but the last time I dealt with excel issues. It was because of the Intel storage controller.
Really? What was the solution?
I can't remember if I ended up waiting for HP to release a new driver and I downloaded the driver directly from Intel. Either way it was frustrating since it was the Director of HR that was having that issue.
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Given that the problem exists over a span of time with multiple machines I'd have a look at whatever she's been plugging into each of these machines. Thumb-drives, externals, etc. Forgive me if this has already been mentioned, skimmed over the thread a bit and didn't see it.
I also agree that moving rooms might be a good option, or at least running power from another one.
Did you check her work laptop out? Maybe she's passing files back and forth via RDP...
Anyway, sounds crazy, hope you get it figured out. Please let us know as I'm super interested.
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@G-I-Jones said in User's PC is unstable:
Given that the problem exists over a span of time with multiple machines I'd have a look at whatever she's been plugging into each of these machines. Thumb-drives, externals, etc. Forgive me if this has already been mentioned, skimmed over the thread a bit and didn't see it.
I also agree that moving rooms might be a good option, or at least running power from another one.
Did you check her work laptop out? Maybe she's passing files back and forth via RDP...
Anyway, sounds crazy, hope you get it figured out. Please let us know as I'm super interested.
She's used a handful of thumb drives over the years, hasn't seemed to affect her laptop at all. She does occasionally put files on the laptop, but for the most part, the laptop is little more than a Thin Client for RDP to the desktop.
I recently suggested moving away from that setup, and only using the laptop, taking it with when she was mobile, but she shot that down - wants a desktop machine that she can always remote back into.
yeah yeah, that's a possible argument for setting up a RDS server, but that's a lot of money for one user and resources on the server compared to desktop and laptop.... but it's at least an idea.
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well - more Excel only issues today.
On the Bosses PC - yesterday I:
uninstall Office 2016 Pro Plus x32
Installed Windows 1093 upgrade
Installed all the windows 10 1903 updates
rebooted
installed Office 2016 Pro Plus x64
Installed the Office updatesToday - she opened a file - originally created in 2010 (at least, if not older) but does a save as every month as she updates it. - while using it, it simply stopped accepting input. You click click on different cells, but couldn't type into anything. Opened Word on the other screen - could type into Word no issue, return to Excel - couldn't type, changed to a different tab on same workbook, could type, a third tab, could type, original tab - could type once again.
/sigh - just weird bloody issues.
Clearly nothing was locked up - we could change cells with the mouse while in Excel - and Windows wasn't locked up, we launched Word and typed there... just this one sheet, while in the middle of updating fields, it just simply stopped accepting input from the keyboard.
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Not really considering this an Excel issue in the past, I never dug into Excel repair tools, until today.
Shows how to tell Excel to try to repair a file.
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@Dashrender was scroll lock somehow activated/pressed?
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@jt1001001 said in User's PC is unstable:
@Dashrender was scroll lock somehow activated/pressed?
Always possible.. but she definitely didn't accidentally click it while I was watching it not work... then suddenly just start working again
