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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