Mapped drive takes forever to show folders - only specific drive letter

[ButtonPuncher]

Has anyone run into a problem where you have a mapped drive and it takes a minute or two to show the folder list after clicking on it? My Computer/Explorer completely freezes until the folder list is shown. If I disconnect the share and change the drive letter, everything is back to normal. If I change the drive letter back, then the problem returns. There is also constant network activity while it is sitting there frozen.

This is driving me nuts. I have a small network with 40 computers on it. Just a few days ago 6 of them started doing this.

They are all XP SP3 and our server is running Win2k Server SP4. Here's what I've tried so far:

MSConfig to disable all startup programs and services.
Disabled the Webclient service.
Disabled the Windows Image Acquisition service.
Run net use * /del /yes to delete all shares

If I access the server directly, it's fine. \server\data So it's not a DNS issue. It's just as soon as I map it with that one drive letter. If I change it to another letter, the problem is gone.

All 6 computers are running different versions of Office and Autocad. I am having an impossible time trying to find a common thread. The only thing that I can think of is that a recent Windows Update is causing it.

I can't change the drive letter on the map because autocad references the files by the drive letter, not the UNC name.

Let me know if you have any ideas.

Thanks,
Ben

 

[ButtonPuncher]

I figured it out.

There was a feature in Explorer on these particular computers. The "music task bar."

I just went into Folder Options -> View and hit "Reset all Folders" and "Restore Defaults"

Problem solved.

What a pain.

I still don't know why it was only affecting one drive letter and why it only surfaced now. Must have been a WMP update recently. I've really got to get WSUS up and running.

Later,
Ben