The Residential Computer lab is comprised of WYSE PCoIP thin clients that connect to a server where they get there desktop from, these clients were an upgrade from older clients which were SunRay 1GS this improved the speed and reliability of the lab ten fold (no joke).
However, lately since school started I have noticed these clients have been running slow, the students in this lab like to use it for the ColorQube printer we have in for them to use they’re print credits on. This has been taking them several minutes for them to log in and print (signs I haven’t seen sense we had Sunray clients) after several days of investigation it is very confusing, some days it takes less than 3 minutes most days just over 3 minutes 30 seconds, on some days as long as 7 minutes…
Needless to say this would irritate students who would get a luck of the draw slow machine while there neighbor came in after they already logged on and had there document printed and out the door before they’re print job could even be sent.
The data we have collected has lead to some interesting conclusions:
Time to log into the computer itself :40 seconds, ~20 seconds to open Microsoft Word; so far looking good right?
1:31 minutes to get all the printers loaded; select the Rescomp printer and get the print button to work (not click able until it is fully loaded): 50 seconds last but not least after hitting the print button it takes another 44 seconds.
Making a total time of : 4 minutes
Run through this same process in the library: 40 seconds, 20 seconds, 36 seconds, 1.2 seconds, 3.6 seconds.
Making a total time of: ~ 1:40 seconds.
Same:
Computer log in; MS Word load time.
Different:
Printer script load time; printer driver load time; print job send to the printer load time.
Leading to a 50% increase in time it takes to send a single print job to my printer than the library…fascinating.
More information will follow.