Question:

I have one pc running xp pro on a network that is having trouble communicating with the server.  This PC worked fine a couple of days ago until a power outage.

Problem Description:
Trying to view or open files from the server can take tens of seconds to minutes.  Using Windows Task Manager, I noticed that on the bad pc the Network Utilization never goes over 1% and usually hovers around 0.3-0.6% when in use on a 100Mbps card.
On one of the PC’s that is working properly, performing the same task of opening a large shared program utilizes 50-60%.
The internet is accessible from the trouble pc and the lights on the network hub are all green.

I’m new to this and any help I can get would be much appreciated.  The server as well as the PC’s are Dell.  The server is running Windows 2003.  I did check the NIC configuration on the pc’s and they are set the same way and have the same updated drivers.

Solution:

>>”another pc was plugged in to the bad pc’s place and is equally as slow, so it doesn’t look like it’s a problem with the client pc”
Could be the patch cable, building network cabling, or a bad switch port. My guess would be the cabling. Network cables, unlike phone cables are very fussy. A kinked cable, close proximity to Electrical Interferance, or even untwisting the wire pairs too far can cause “cross-talk” and drastically affect performance. To test/certify a netwok drop you need a cabling analyzer that runs >$6000., but I would first replace the patch cables as they are the part that is most easily damaged.