Intermittent network problem and general slowdown on Dell laptop

[Haden]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1100 (Win XP Pro, SP2) which I
connect to a 10/100 wired network through a router both at
home and at my office. At home, I have high-speed cable
internet (modem to router), and at work, DSL (modem to
router). Things have been fine on this PC for around a
year with this setup. I use the offline content feature
to synchronize copies of folders and files from my office
network when I go home, and that too has worked fine for a
year or so, synchronizing automatically when I log in or
log out of the office network.

For the last few days, my laptop will occasionally decide
to not "see" the server and pc's on the network (and they
cannot see it either), either at home or at work, even
though at that time it can still continue to browse any
internet websites from the laptop. The only way to solve
the problem seems to be to reboot the laptop, at which
time it usually connects, synchronizes, and is fine for
awhile again.

Even though it has passed its 1 year warranty, I spent 40
minutes on the phone with Dell support, and they assured
me that it could not be my network card failing, since
when the network is inaccessible, the internet is still
available. I have recently been finding the need to clean
off more adware with Adaware and Norton Internet Security
lately, but I'm not sure if that could be contributing to
my problem or not. I recently installed SP2 for Win XP
Pro, but I wouldn't think that could be gumming things up
(or could it?) I'm also experiencing a slowdown when
running my main application, Autodesk Revit, a Building
Information Modeling (2nd generation CAD) software which
is graphics and processor intensive, but has never run
quite this slow before. When comparing my Inspiron 1100
(2.0 Ghz processor, 1.0 Gb RAM, WinXP Pro SP2) to a newer
Inspiron 5150 in my office (2.26 Ghz processor and 512 Mb
RAM, WinXP Pro without SP2), some rather simple operations
in Revit are actually 3-4 times faster on the Inspiron
5150.

My first thought is to try completely reloading WinXP and
SP2, and all of my software, but I would rather not start
that without a better idea of what's wrong, especially if
it could be a bad network card. I hope I don't have to
trash this laptop and start over with a new one, but I
will if it's the only way to speed things up and solve the
unpredictability. Any thoughts or help would be greatly
appreciated.

 

[Robert L [MS-MVP]]

sounds like master browser issue. quoted from http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How do I know I have a browser problem

When you open My Network Places, the computer list you see is obtaining from
the master browser of your network. You have a master browser issue if you
have the following symptoms. 1) If you can ping a computer name, you can
search it, you can map it, but that computer doesn't show or take long time
to show up on My Network Places.
2) Net view command shows no lists or shows "System error 6118 has occurred.
The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available".
3) when clicking on Computers Near Me in My Network Places or workgroup name
in Entire Network, the following error message may appear: "Cannot Access
'Computers Near Me' " or "Workgroup is not accessible" errors.
4) when click workgroup name under Entire Network Places, you get "Workgroup
is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network
resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have
access permission. The list server for this workgroup is not currently
available."
5) Windows Explorer or My Network Places take a long time to open.
6) Event logs on servers show many master browser election messages.


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Robert Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE

Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN, Anti-Virus, Tips & Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

I have recently been finding the need to clean
off more adware with Adaware and Norton Internet Security
lately, but I'm not sure if that could be contributing to
my problem or not.

Haden,

even before reading these sentences, your description conjured
the adware scenario.

Removing the adware may not be enough, as it wedges itself into
the Winsock as well.

Some of the problems could also hail from the computer browser
service.

Please use http://www.michna.com/kb/wxnet.htm to determine the
solution.

Hans-Georg