The Members Forum

I’m always looking for fresh cases, use of obscure tool features, and unique troubleshooting techniques, so please keep them coming. This time, I’m sharing a fascinating case that highlights two useful techniques: comparing Sysinternals Process Monitor logs from working and problematic systems, and using Sysinternals PsExec to capture activity during a logon.

The case begins when a systems administrator at a large company got multiple end-user complaints that logon was taking over three minutes. The users didn’t encounter any problems once logged on, but the delays were understandably frustrating. Many other users running with the same software configuration weren’t experiencing issues, however. Looking for commonalities, the administrator queried the network configuration database and, sure enough, saw that all the systems with complaints were Dell Precision 670 workstations. He thought he had a major clue until he looked he saw that the systems running without issue included seemingly identical 670 workstations.