I have this funny problem over the past few weeks:
When I dial up to the ISP and as soon as the connection is established, I load Internet Explorer. Type in the URL (e.g. www.dvdrhelp.com) and the home page loads up. Clicking on topic should reload the topic page. Instead, the form clears itself, it starts to load the new page and then it stops loading.
At the same time, the task bar becomes non-responsive. Clicking on any icon on the taskbar has no effect.
The only cure is to use task manager, kill the IExplorer task(s) as well as the Explorer tasks (Windows Explorer). After that, usually, the task bar and desktop items redraw themselves and everything goes back to normal. Even if I don't do that and just ignore the issue for a couple of minutes, things eventually go back to normal!
During this time, no internet connection traffic is registered and no background task or service I cannot identify is running.
I have found a way around this (just this morning). Connect to the ISP as normal and then ignore the connection (not load Internet Explorer) for a couple of minutes. When I load Internet explorer after 3 minutes or so, everything is normal and IExplorer works fine.
I have ruled out virus issues, have replaced by OS partition with a brand new ghost image with just the OS installed (XPSP1) and tried that again.
The indications point to the Modem card driver or the card itself (more probably as the same XP driver worked fine a couple of months ago).
Has anyone had similar experience? (i.e. connecting to the internet and having tasks locking up for a couple of minutes)
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The more I learn, the more I come to realize how little it is I know.
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Win Modem ? What is that?
I am using an Aztech Rockwell based PCI card modem.
I have downloaded the drivers for Win2K and XP from their site some 3 months ago. I have used this exact modem in several other PCs, but mainly with Win2K.The more I learn, the more I come to realize how little it is I know. -
I'm pretty sure the Rockwell chipset based modems are Win-Modems.
WinModems are not true modems, but Windows with just a few pieces of hadware can perfom the same task as a true modem. The problem with WinModems is that while your PC is waiting for a responce to a connection its trying to make, Windows waits along with it. A hardware based modem can do this independently, so Windows doesn't have to put its life on hold. With WinModems, Windows is doing all the work. With Hardware based modems, the modem is doing the work.
When your PC dials your ISP, i'll bet your system freezes for a few seconds while waiting for the connection. This is characteristic of WinModems!
If you ever need to replace your modem, consider a hardware based modem.
You might get a quicker loading page by using an ad-blocker. If you IE tries to download pics (or other) that are not actually on DVDHelp.com, but just linked from other sites, and the connection between you and that site is slow, then i could see IE hanging a bit. What you see at a particular web site isn't necessarily off that server, some of the content is likely linked from another site. It makes it easier for the people who bought ad-space to keep their ads up to date.
Have you noticed a thing called ToggleImages.exe in your "Favorites / Links" folder. Its just a simple switch to tell IE to load, or not to load the images of a web page. Try it. Does the page load any quicker?
Did you try to turn off scripting in IE? Any difference? -
I understand what you mean by Win Modem.
I thought these used a special DMR(??) like socket on the motherboard.
Mine is a PCI card that provides a modem through a COM3 port that is provided by the board.
The problem is that the lock-up is not happening while connecting. After I'm connected, after the connected icon appears in the status-bar, everything works normally. If I don't start Internet explorer all is fine.
Once I start Internet Explorer, WITHIN 5 MINUTES OF GOING ON-LINE, Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer and the status bar freeeze.
If I wait for 5-7 minutes after connecting and then starting Internet Explorer, all work ok and nothing freezes.
Initially I thought it was something to do with Windows Updates looking up for updates or downloading updates, however waiting for 7 minutes and checking for bytes sent and received show only 6Kb sent and 3Kb received, which appears to be just the login-username verification data exchange.
I have repeatedly verified that waiting 7 minutes after connecting before I launch Internet Explorer "bypasses" the "problem".
Interesting, isn't it?
Will keep searching for the cause...
Of course, any insight or even any crazy idea is more than welcome...The more I learn, the more I come to realize how little it is I know. -
I have a few "Rockwell chipset" based sitting right in front of me, there not always in a CNR slot. (or AMR slot)
Are you running Norton AntiVirus by chance? There was a problem a while back about expired certificates. Peoples PC's were hangin up all over the world. The problem wasn't really with Norton AntiVirus, it was with LiveUpdate.
My conncection is broadband, and my PC would hang whenever it couldn't find the "Certificate Revokation List". All i had to do the "Un-Hang it" was just unplug the Cat5 cable.
I eventually found a work-around for the problem. I figured out that the site "crl.verisign.com" had two different IP addresses. I used Norton Internet Security to block the one that wouldn't respond, and saw a dramatic improvement. -
I think I have nailed down the reason of the hanging (for exactly 7 minutes after loading Internet Explorer).
I created an alternative user on my XP machine and used that user to log on to the ISP.
I then started Internet Explorer.
The first thing that came up when visiting a site was a message that a cookie was rejected. Instead of asking not to show this message again, I unchecked this and modified the settings to "always accept session cookies".
I tried this twice until now and noticed that the system isn't hanging at all.
Actually, the system wasn't hanging per se. I switched to the alternate user while VirtualDUB was processing a movie (quite risky I guess, but who cares...). While my system was "hanging" not able to processs user interactivity, the VirtualDUB application running in the background processing the video was active. Furthermore, once the system became responsive once again, it displayed quite a few "End task" dialogs, one for each close window click I made while being bored waiting.
My main suspicion is that the numerous security updates that I've applied from Windows Update made Internet Explorer "too safe" to properly work with the typical sites I'm visiting. These include www.hotmail.com, www.dvdrhelp.com, a few local TV station websites (to peek at the TV schedule and program my PVR application to record late night shows), etc.
I will verify these suspicions over the next couple of days and report back.
BTW, I've seen the disastrous consequences of norton antivirus at the beginning of the year at some company PCs. For this and other reasons, I don't use any antivirus program. I excercise caution and just in case, I have a clean ghost of my system's system disk.The more I learn, the more I come to realize how little it is I know. -
I've noticed that occasionally settings get hung in Windows. They usually clear up by changing the security settings, 'click apply', and then setting back to default, 'click apply'.
Basically just flipping the switch back and forth a couple of times.
I'm glad to hear its nothing serious though.
(just normal Windows flakey-ness)
..........seriously, go get at least a free AntiVirus.
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