We've got a Dell 2900 server (running Windows 2003) that's running dreadfully slow.
- SQL queries are timing out.
- Windows explorer takes HOURS to open.
- File server requests are dreadfully slow.
- Processor load is minimal (<10%).
- Minimal disk traffic.
- Light network traffic.
- Users are crazed.
- No errors in the event log.
- No errors on the Dell OMSA log.
This also happened a year ago and we struggle through it for a couple weeks. Lots of work with Dell to figure out the trouble. Last year we finally got lucky and one 'memory error' showed up on the OMSA log in memory bank 1. We switched it out with bank 4, and got a memory error on bank 4. Dell sent us another memory stick, we swapped out number 4, and we were back up and running.
Since I wasn't really sure this was a total fix, I bought some spare memory and put it on the shelf.
Yesterday, the server started acting up again. Overnight I shut down the machine, swapped out ALL of the memory, and the server sped back up!
Now I get to contact Dell and see if they'll swap out all of the memory
Two final thoughts.
First - hopefully this helps someone else.
Second, I guess there's a memory failure mode that 'delays', or slows down the memory requests. The chip, or the motherboard must be dragging its feet. What's odd is that no errors show up. No alerts. The processor isn't working hard, but is waiting for memory... There's not enough data to load the disk, or the network. It's kind of like the memory bus isn't taking the express route.
Anyone else run into this?