network connection causes My Docs and defragmenter extremely slow

[Guest]

Hello all,

This is a really weird problem. I keep rebuilding a computer for one
of our employees and after a month of using the computer, suddenly
accessing files and folders in My Documents and on some network drives
and in some other areas on C moves at a crawl (up to several minutes to
access anything).

I have narrowed down the problem to be only when a network cable is
plugged in even in connected to a router that is disconnected and with
2 different NICs. As soon as you disconnect the network cable, you can
access the folder you are trying to open and disc defragmenter opens
up.

The system is a Dell 520 Optiplex and has Windows XP with all patches
(I have tried uninstalling the patch that ends in 5831 which also did
nothing).

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks much,

Toni

 

[Ted Zieglar]

Sounds like classic behavior for malware, particularly a worm.

 

[Guest]

It is not a worm or malware. I have scanned for these things. It may be
related to an application called Reference Manager.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

Toni P.