Something else to consider is which printer it is using. I have seen some
printer drivers
that caused much the same symptoms; switch to a different printer, or
upgrade the
driver and the machine worked fine.
Jamie Furtner

At 09:46 PM 99-09-14 , you wrote:
>Hello to all
>
>A customer has given me a machine to attempt to find a hardware problem with
>it, and I am at a loss.
>
>The machine is a custom built box with an Intel TC430HX motherboard, 32 mb
>of ram, Maxtor 2GB HDD, and Win 95a, IE 5.  I checked this machine for
>viruses.
>
>The problem as defined by the customer is this:  When using MS Office
>products, especially Word, when he selects File/Print it takes as much as 2
>minutes for the print dialog box to appear on the screen.  After the print
>dialog has appeared for the first time, the next time he attempts to print
>the dialog box pops up instantly.  This is a recent change identifed during
>the last 6 wks or so.  He worked with MS for a couple of days, trying to
>make adjustments to the Win.ini file and other solutions.  Ultimately, MS
>threw up their hands and said "Hardware!"  Now it is my problem.
>
>I tested this and found that all of the common dialog boxes are slow, but
>especially the print dialog and not only in MS Office products, but also in
>WordPad.  If I run in Safe Mode the dialog box pops up instantly.  If I
>delete the Win.ini file, the machine works well until I install any printer
>drivers, then it gets flakey again.
>
>At times, this machine overall moves like molassas.  The mouse is extremely
>slow, and the HDD hammers like crazy.  At other times, it seems to work okay
>except for the dialog box problems.
>
>If I move the HDD to another machine it has the same problem.  If I put
>another HDD on the customers box, it performs perfectly.  This would seem to
>narrow it down to the HDD.  I have tested the HDD with simple read/write
>testing software and got not errors over a 12 hour period.  Scan disk shows
>no errors.
>
>I have removed IE5 [identified as loaded about 6 wks ago], but have no
>changes.
>
>Can anyone suggest where to go next?  The customer is willing to simply
>format the drive or replace it which we will do.  I on the other hand have
>become intrigued and am looking for an answer in addition to the HDD
>replacement.
>
>Any help is appreciated.
>
>Mike Buraczewski
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-- Jamie Furtner [log in to unmask]

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