I’ve got a Hewlett Packard with Windows 98 (Pentium ll processor). It operates fine doing anything EXCEPT when I get online, and lately I’ll have maybe fifteen minutes to a half an hour and the whole thing freezes. I usually have to do the Control +Alt dance to cut it off, since it won’t shut off any other way.
Why does it do this when I’m ONLY online? The only other program that I’ve had freeze is the Mavis Beacon typing program. Is it the brand of computer I have? My oldest son has a Compaq laptop that doesn’t freeze even though he’ll get online using it instead of the big PC.
I’m bewildered and frustrated, I could use some help, I’m falling farther and farther behind in keeping up with everyone online because this problem seems to be getting worse.
It may have more to do with the programs you using when you’re online than just being online. What programs are you using when it crashes? Internet Explorer? (Yeah, I thought so…)
If that’s the problem, you could reinstall IE, or make sure you have the latest patch. Or, if you’ve totally lost the will to live, you could install Netscape. IE crashes me every hour or so on Win95, and maybe every 4 hours on W2K. (Can’t wait for Windows 2005 so I can go a whole workday without rebooting.) When I’m not using IE, I can usually run W2K around the clock.
Are you running a firewall or on AOL? They can cause problems too. Also, playing games online or viewing really good streaming pornography on Windows Media Player will lock you up too.
It’s possible that a flaky internal modem is causing problems, but it would be down on my list of Usual Suspects.
MSIE 5.5 was supposed to be released today. It’s better than 5.1 because it solves some of the old problems and replaces them with all new ones!
First, the problem is Windoze and IE. But we aren’t going back to DOS at this stage, so you need to see what IE doesn’t like and turn it off when you are online. AOL is a good possibility. Check your version of Norton Utilities. Some versions are crashware. Then check the icons next to the clock. Exit all of those programs before you go online and see if the problem solves itself. Then check the modem.
Dont Wanna SCARE you or anything BUT i had the same THING happen to ME and i had a virus…Long story short i had to re format losing all my info and starting all over again :eek:
Another one could be Denial of Service (DOS) attacks. Someone could be “nuking” you. Are you on IRC a lot? This type of nonsense can be pretty common there.
if the delay before locking is constant from when you start up your Internet connection that the most likely cuprit is your modem/ISP combination. Depending on the hardware on your ISPs backend and your modem chipset and BIOS version, you may be running into problems there that are locking your connection and pulling the whole machine down with it (and don’t all you other people whine to me about how Windows is soooo unstable … my '95 machine has been running for 3 years without a crash that I did not cause on purpose and my Win2K machine has been running for 5 months now and I work it!!).
Try updating the firware of your modem (let me know if you need help doing that) and go from there. Barring that, talk to the tech people at your ISP. Most that I have met are good, hardworking guys.
If you are using AOL, what version? Lots of problems get solved by upgrading to the latest version (5.0 for now, 6.0 is in beta and should be comming out soon) The same goes for most of the other software on the machine. Make sure you have the latest versions of the drivers for your particular hardware, and patches for Windows (Dial-Up Networking in particular).
Although as others have said, virii and attacks from outside are possibilities.
“There’s a reason why we don’t always report the latest patches to come out of Redmond: sometimes they make matters worse. (aaarrgh NT 4.0 SP2 flashbacks, aaahhhh!). 'Tis nothing too serious this time, but Wininformant is reporting that the latest update to IE 5.0 breaks Office 2000’s help feature. If you’re affected (and care), there’s a fix on this page.”–e pluribus unum
You may have found another bug. If you want to start checking, you might try http://www.tomshardware.com or perhaps the forum there. Or, try keyword: tomshardware! Good luck!
What are you running Netscape? What version of IE?
What I don’t like about IE is that you have to be online now to download & install it & thats about 80 megs. Yes, 80 megs.
I could not find a seperate version that lets you download & then save to disk & install it which would be about 20 megs. If anyone knows where that is post the URL.download.com & microsoft.com don’t seem to have it in that form.
** Gammu, ** I have Internet Explorer and I don’t play games online, nor do I visit porn sites. It’s mainly checking my e mails and then coming here to the SDMB and Opal’s forum. Pretty tame stuff, don’tcha think? My son put on AOL Instant Messenger last week, but he doesn’t think that has anything to do with the more quick crashes. Otherwise, that’s the only AOL thing I have.
** Chief Crunch and Lazarus7, ** I have a 56K modem that was loaded this spring, there haven’t been any problem with it. Whatever is causing this frequent cutting off has to be recent. Or it seems like that to me, but then, I’m so computer illiterate, I could be arrested if it were against the law.
** zebbmx, ** How would I be able to tell if it were a virus? I have a VirusScan that runs when I open Windows, isn’t that supposed to guard against viruses?
** Sofa King, ** your belief is what my son is thinking, that there is a bug in the system itself. But, I don’t know what to do about that. Is that the kind of thing I have to take the tower into a computer fix-it place??
** handy, and every other helpful computer person, ** I appreciate your help! Now, I if I can JUST stay on long enough to get THIS posted!!
That’s obviously your problem, you don’t visit enough pr0n sites to keep your system happy. Actually the porn is irrelevant, it’s the Media Player that would crash or lock-up (at least mine would, about every 30th file I tried to open). But this is usually obvious.
If the problem started abruptly when you installed AIM, well, just de-activate it – make sure you get rid of the little thing in the shelf (lower right corner of the screen). I also have had delayed-crash problems with a program called NetVampire.
As far as a virus, I’ve found that scanners that run all the time, such as “monitors”, do more harm than good for most systems. Unless you have lots of shady peeps installing all manner of questionable things all the time on your computer, you really only need to scan executable files before you execute them for the first time. This includes installation programs and executable email attachements. And maybe scan the whole system once a month. Viruses exist, and can do damage, but you don’t have to live in a plastic bubble they generally can’t get on your system unless you execute something, trojans and worms are similar.
What virus scanner are you using? You must keep the database updated or it might not be very effective anyway.
Here’s what I’d do. Try at your own risk - I take no responsibility for what happens :
Go to Microsoft’s website and get a program called RegClean.exe and run it until it stops finding errors in your registry (and it will). This sometimes helps with system stability.
Do a fresh reboot and get online without ever starting IE or AIM. Just let it idle online for as long as you can (hours if you can, some ISPs will disconnect you), or run something else like mIrc. If it still crashes, it’s probably not IE or AIM and increases the probability that it’s hardware.
Go to MS’s website and make sure you have the latest round of patches, but that may trade one set of problems for another. You could also try reinstalling the whole IE, or even all of Win98.
You could install NetScape. I don’t care for it, but it’s an option.
Make sure your virus database is up to date, and scan your whole system. http://www.mcafee.com had a free, online scanner (for a limited time only) that actually worked. I’m not sure if it’s still available.
Call the place you bought it or HP or MS for support, and reap the untold benenfits of software registration.
If all else fails, and it’s still under warrantee, take it back for repair/refund/exchange.
If you know what you’re doing, open the case and unplug the modem and plug it back in. Sometimes that will help too.
I’d still say there’s a 90% chance it’s either IE or AIM. BTW, you don’t have to “strain” IE for it to crash. Just running it is sufficient.
** Gammu, **SOooooo, my problem is that I DON’T visit porn sites and that’s what is causing me to ‘freeze’ so I’m really just frigid, huh??? Wowweee, I thought this was a computer problem and here it turns out to be my sex life, or lack thereof!
As for the computer…
My son is downloading IE 5.5 to replace the old IE 5 that I’d been using. I’m printing out your suggestions and I’ll run through them trying each one.
The problems we’ve been having with the computer have existed before the installation of AIM but there’s a good chance it’s the browser, hence we’re installing IE 5.5.
As for the Virus Scanner we have, it’s the MacAfee scan that came with the computer when we bought it. My son doesn’t have a virus scanner and as I’ve said before, he doesn’t suffer the same affliction of being frozen online.
Thanks for the good luck wishes, please cross your fingers and anything else that has worked for you in the past, I can use all the help that I can get!!
** handy, ** the house is air conditioned with an overhead fan that I keep on almost the entire year, yeah, I get hot in the winter too!
However, DJ (oldest son) installed IE 5.5 (and while it took about an hour and a half to download, not only did it finally load up, we never got cut off either!) I can’t tell if anything is better or faster, but what I CAN tell is that I’m STILL on and that’s all I wanted!!
** Gammu!! ** You were * supposed to be crossing your fingers for luck, * NOT smirking and waiting for me to have more problems!! I’ve been on for a whole HOUR! Just drop the smirk and KEEP the ‘Yay’.
IE crashes me every hour or so on Win95, and maybe every 4 hours on W2K. (Can’t wait for Windows 2005 so I can go a whole workday without rebooting.) When I’m not using IE, I can usually run W2K around the clock.
