Horrific Keystroke LAGS!
David in San Diego
I've filed an incident report with Microsoft even though
it may be "old news" to most Office users. In my case, I
got a new computer with Windows xP installed, bought
Office 2000 (and not Office xP after reading bad reviews
about it at Amazon.com), and have noticed that some
applications, especially Word 2000, experience "lags"
from 2-10 seconds before executing any keystroke. This
happens intermittently, but during EVERY session of
Word. I had heard of performance issues from others
using the xP operating system, so I directed the Setup
program of Office 2000 to NOT remove Word 6.0c which I
had for seven years under Windows 95 and I re-installed
when I got this new computer last month; though it
doesn't have the bells of Word 2000, there are zero
performance problems with Word 6.0c; keystroke response
is instantaneous! Yet the "new and improved" Word 2000,
with Office 2000, has these aggravating "lag" problems.
Applications "hang" but ultimately execute if you have
enough patience equal to the time it takes to grab a can
of soda and come back, but honestly, this is too much for
an "updated" application. I sure hope that someone who
appreciates the problems of "newbies to Office 2000 and
higher" can post a response soon.
David in San Diego
David in San Diego
Hotfixes to both Windows xP and Office 2000 have been
installed -- but nothing has corrected the problem. Gee,
this sounds like an endemic issue that should have a fix;
in the beginning I momentarily thought I had a hardware
issue, and this "lag" issue makes you believe it; but
when you go to ALL other applications on your computer,
no lag issues at all!
Sorry in San Diego
Mike Williams
1.What other processes do you have running in the background, e.g. virus
checker, ...
2. Is speech recognition enabled? (Tools > Speech)
3. Do you have the same probem with network disabled? (not just disconnected
but disabled)
4. Do you have fast-save on?
I would also suggest downloading later video drivers from manufacturer's web
site.
David in San Diego
Hi Mike; thanks for writing. Double-checked the things
you mentioned and the lags continue.
1) No anti-virus program running (that was one of the
first things I disabled and in fact, it reduced the lag
time from about 14 seconds to about 8-10 seconds).
2) Ability to disable Speech recognition from control
panel is "grayed-out," preventing me from taking action.
3) Network is disabled.
4) Fast-save has been turned off as you directed, this
has reduced lag by about two seconds on average (that's
progress).
5) >I would also suggest downloading later video drivers
from manufacturer's web site.<<< Hmmm. that's something
I hadn't thought of, I'll try it and report back with the
results later.
Any other ideas would be appreciated...
Echo S
didn't have much of anything even loaded on the machine. Not even
antivirus software at that point. I think this is what resolved it:
> Right-click on local Area Connection and select Properties. Clear the
> check box against QoS.
But mine is a standalone machine and was at that time on a dialup
connection. One piece of information that was given to me in case I was
on a network was:
> The most common cause is "browsing" -- ie, a downlevel machine is trying
> to take over the master browser role on the network. If you've got a
> mixed network, you're much more likely to see this. And yet, I have seen
> two apparently identical machines on the same network -- one had it, one
> didn't.
At any rate, you'll probably do better posting to the WinXP groups.
These little bits of information were from way back in Jan 2000, and I
suspect the people in the WinXP groups have a much better handle on this
by now. If you do post there, be sure to tell them what you've already
tried.
--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com
David in San Diego
I was encouraged by some to do a complete system restore,
and failing that, to do a complete re-install (two
measures tried previously which I forgot to mention in my
list of tried but failed solutions), it turns out
that "clearing the QofS check box" in Local Area
Connection not only restored the "Open Office Document"
application in full working order, but also reduced the
lag time to about 5 seconds (down from an original top end
of 18), and it now crops up only once (instead of several
times) each session of Word 2000.
Just when I lose faith in the ability to get help from
others, esp. w/respect to finding solutions that appear on
the surface, to require needle-in-a-haystack
searches...people like "Echo" and others on these
wonderful boards come to the rescue, esp. to some of
us "newbies" who have likely tugged at the ears of many of
you Microsoft Vets for issues that are older than a
bristlecone pine. Thanks again!
P.S. -- Though there is a part of me that really wonders
aloud -- WHY would such an apparently "simple" solution,
e.g., clearing a gray box in "Local Area Connection" would
solve a horrific problem? I want to know and I almost
don't want to know. Whatever it is, it's something that
needs to be included in a patch since by reading these
boards, the keystroke lag issue hasn't gone away....
David in San Diego
>-----Original Message-----
I had something very similar going on when I first got
WinXP, and I didn't have much of anything even loaded on
the machine. Not even antivirus software at that point. I
think this is what resolved it:
Right-click on local Area Connection and select
Properties. Clear the check box against QoS.
But mine is a standalone machine and was at that time on a
dialup connection. One piece of information that was given
to me in case I was on a network was:
The most common cause is "browsing" -- ie, a downlevel
machine is trying to take over the master browser role on
the network. If you've got a mixed network, you're much
more likely to see this. And yet, I have seen two
apparently identical machines on the same network -- one
had it, one didn't.
At any rate, you'll probably do better posting to the
WinXP groups. These little bits of information were from
way back in Jan 2000, and I suspect the people in the
WinXP groups have a much better handle on this by now. If
you do post there, be sure to tell them what you've already
tried.
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
Echo S
For what it's worth, I experienced the same lag for awhile after turning
off the QoS, so at first I didn't think it had worked. But after a
couple of weeks, all sign of a lag was gone. Very strange. I hope it
works that way for you, too!
Echo
(My name really is Echo!)