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Posted: Mon 26 Mar 2018, 2:51pm.
Systems / Services Affected: Performance of desktop computers. Microsoft Outlook in particularly seems to ‘hang’ or crash entirely.
Date / time: 26 March 2018, 14:00 - ongoing
Reason for downtime: We are currently investigating the cause of this issue.
IT Services change/incident number: 361432
Contact the IT Service Desk for support:
Call us on 01273 678090
UPDATE: 27 Mar 2018 - 4:42pm
IT Services has identified and resolved a number of contributing factors to the performance issue affecting desktop computers, and we are continuing to monitor the situation.
If you find that your desktop computer freezes or runs unusually slowly, please report this to the IT Service Desk. Please include the asset number (on a black and silver sticker on your computer) and the location of your computer as this will help us to investigate.
UPDATE: 28 Mar 2018 - 1:06pm
We have received ongoing reports of intermittent slow IT performance again this morning. This is affecting all windows applications.
IT Services are continuing to investigate and will provide a further update this afternoon.
UPDATE: 28 Mar 2018 - 4:08pm
The intermittent issues are ongoing and IT Services are continuing to monitor and investigate the problem.
Thank you for your patience.
UPDATE: 4 Apr 2018 - 4:43pm
We are investigating the cause of a performance issue on the Sussex network. You may have experienced this problem if you’ve noticed programs like Outlook or Word freezing for several minutes, for example you may see the spinning ‘wait cursor’ for a while, and then your computer begins to work again as normal.
We're requesting more information to help investigate the problem. If you experience a performance issue, please log a support ticket with the IT Service Desk.
Please include the following information:
You can log a support ticket by going to sussex.ac.uk/its and pressing the red HELP button, then look for the red General Enquiry button.
UPDATE: 6 Apr 2018 - 3:52pm
IT Services is continuing to investigate the issue that is causing intermittent performance issues for desktop computers.
If you are affected by this issue (ie, if a ‘wait cursor’ appears on your screen and one or more applications stop responding for more than a few seconds) then our advice is:
We apologise for the inconvenience this issue is causing and would like to reassure all students and staff that we will resolve the problem as quickly as possible.
UPDATE: 9 Apr 2018 - 4:16pm
IT Services is continuing to investigate the problem that is causing intermittent performance issues for desktop computers.
On Friday we provided advice that you should log out if your computer stops responding for more than 5 minutes. However, please don’t power your computer off to try to resolve the problem, as this can cause further complications. If your system freezes for more than 5 minutes and you’re unable to log out in the normal way, please contact the IT Service Desk.
Thank you to all the users who reported the details of their errors to us, this has been very helpful. We now have enough information about the nature of the problem, so please only contact us if you’re unable to work.
We apologise for the inconvenience this issue is causing and would like to reassure all students and staff that we will resolve the problem as quickly as possible.
UPDATE: 12 Apr 2018 - 11:33am
Some staff and students are continuing to encounter intermittent performance issues on desktop computers. Users are typically experiencing problems with systems freezing, with sessions usually recovering after approximately 5 minutes.
The root cause of this issue is proving difficult to identify and we are actively working through all options to isolate and fix the problem. We have also escalated this incident to the highest levels with our support partners and are working with them for a swift resolution.
As previously advised, if your system freezes and you’re unable to log out and back in, please contact the IT Service Desk. We are actively logging and collating all information and concerns relating to this issue to aid our fault resolution activities.
We apologise for the inconvenience this issue is causing and would like to reassure all students and staff that we will resolve the problem as quickly as possible.
UPDATE: 24 Apr 2018 - 1:06pm
We are aware of substantial performance issue that’s currently affecting use of desktop PCs. We believe this is in line with a change recommended by our supplier. We will continue to monitor the situation and we are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.
UPDATE: 24 Apr 2018 - 1:41pm
Following on from the performance issue affecting desktop PCs today, we have rolled back the change recommended by our supplier.
If you continue to experience problems, please log out and log back in to your workstation.
We apologise for the disruption and inconvenience this has caused.
UPDATE: 24 Apr 2018 - 4:31pm
The change to our storage configuration was successfully rolled back, however some users are continuing to experience trouble with accessing files, applications freezing or slow logins. We are continuing to work with our support partners to restore access and desktop performance following this morning’s change.
Our advice at this time is:
IF YOU ARE A STUDENT experiencing performance issues, log out and log back in.
IF YOU ARE A MEMBER OF STAFF using a desktop computer, try to avoid logging out. You should leave your computer locked (press the Windows key + L) when you go home but remain logged in.
We apologise for the disruption and inconvenience this has caused today.
UPDATE: 2 May 2018 - 11:58am
We are continuing to experience intermittent slow performance issues across campus at various times during the day.
We are still actively logging and collating all information and concerns relating to this issue to aid our fault resolution activities. We are investigating the issues with our support partners and working through all options to isolate and fix the problem.
We apologise for the inconvenience and ongoing disruption this is causing.
UPDATE: 4 May 2018 - 2:43pm
We are continuing to experience intermittent slow performance issues across campus at various times during the day.
We are still actively logging and collating all information and concerns relating to this issue to aid our fault resolution activities. We are investigating the issues with our support partners and working through all options to isolate and fix the problem.
We apologise for the inconvenience and ongoing disruption this is causing.
UPDATE: 11 May 2018 - 10:46am
Following a number of configuration changes, there has been a reduction in the performance issues of desktop computers.
We are continuing to monitor the situation and we’re working with our support partners to further enhance the stability and performance of desktop computers.
We are pleased to report that, following a series of incremental changes to our servers, network and local desktop configurations, we are continuing to see a stable user experience on staff desktop computers.
To further improve the service, we will be implementing additional changes over the summer, some of which may impact the performance of your computer for short periods of time. Please watch the IT Services news page or Twitter account for advance notice of any works.
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