While trying to save a file out of Excel, clicking the parent directory button would cause a delayed reponse taking about 20 seconds to a few minutes before the file requestor would update. I immediately thought, could a virus have slipped through? Is spyware causing this?

After running some virus scans and running spyware searches, I determined that the problem only occured while accessing files. No other program had this delay, but it certainly existed and persisted even after a reboot. Going on the notion that it was file access related, I tried cleaning up my messy desktop. No help.

Finally, after disabling all network connected devices the problem went away. The network device which caused these problems for me was an HP printer’s Card Reader slot. I never wanted this installed on my system, but HP insists that I share and enjoy all their bulky device software. No doubt that I will post a solution for that in the future.

 For shame Microsoft! Every other program seems to understand how to handle a disconnected device better using your own OS than your own programs!

1. Thanks so much for this tip. I am not a big PC expert but finally stumbed upon where to find my HP network devices and disconnected them and I am on my way to finally work today without the agony of WAITING for the darn MS word and/or excel files to save. I went to Network Places, Tools, and then Disconnect Devices.

   I would like to know how to restore what I did so when I get home I can print off the network to guess…an HP printer. Can you tell me?

   Comment from Nina — May 29, 2009 @ 1:33 pm

2. Save as function within MS office 2007 running on a PC with Vista - either 32 or 64 bit often fails “file not saved” if you try to save the file onto a drive on our LAN. I can save as to anywhere on my local hard drive but not to a network hard drive. If I open the file off a network PC (they are running XP SP3) I can open and save but I cannot “save as”

   This is happening to all on our LAN running Vista and not to those running XP but it happens only with MS office product software and not things like AutoCad

   Any help would be appreciated - this just started happening in the last month - we all have automatic updates on for MS software and operating systems

   Comment from Tom Later — August 28, 2009 @ 8:32 pm

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