Please help me diagnose this computer problem

Factual Questions
1

This is going to be a cumbersome and unweildy way to present my problem but I think in th long run will be the best way. In these two threads my problem is described, and many solutions are suggested, all of which were tried and all of which failed.

Can anybody else think of any other possible thing? I have tried other things, but over the course of the nearly year that this has been happening it is impossible for me to remember everything, so if you suggest something that was not listed in these forums, forgive me if I reply that it has been unsuccessfully tried already.

Once again I promised a website and once again it was late because I can’t get the friggin pages to load so that I can check them. I would just throw this friggin piece of junk in the trash, but as I work at home I MUST have a computer to have a job, and I certainly can’t afford a new one. Besides, like alot of people these days, I have built up quite a cybersocial life that I hate to leave.

I want to reiterate that this has happened with both ISPs so that’s not it, it has happened with both dial-up and DSL so it’s not the modem, and it only happens with IE and OE - it never happens when downloading files, it never happens in IRC, it never happens in AIM, it never happens on my son’s game servers, it never happens on Telnet. I can work on Telnet a full 8 hours without ever experiencing any kind of lag. My son can game for 2 hours without experiencing any kind of lag. But I go on a website and simply click the back button and sit and watch the houglass for as much as three minutes before the page loads.

BTW, on this forum I am “Biggie Fries”, to let you know which post to look for my description of my problem.

2

Just a thought.
Could it be a cache problem or maybe a RAM issue?
Maybe the HD is being used instead of the RAM…
I wouldn`t even know how to check for those, but maybe someone else does.

3

Based on your description and other thread I would guess some low levels settings in windows or some binaries are corrupted and are beyond the reach of fix it tools or changing settings. You cannot solve the problem by re-installing windows on top of an existing (corrupted) windows OS. You will have to save your data, format and re-install the OS and the programs.

FWIW IMO if it’s a work PC that you depend on for making money you should never, ever let your kids anywhere near it. A lot of the stuff kids like to do on PCs opens the door to self installing spyware and crapware which can bog and mess up your system in short order.

4

I see in one of the threads that someone suggested installing and running Ad-Aware and Spybot. Did you do that? My first thought when I read about your problem was that you have some kind of spyware that found it’s way onto your computer and it’s causing problems.

Mr. Athena and I both work at home, and will occasionally see things like you describe. For example, my Web browser will start to run veerrrrrry slooooowwwly, but his computer and the others on our network will be fine. I run Ad-Aware/Spybot, it finds some crap and removes it, and I’m good to go.

And btw… you need to run BOTH Ad-Aware and Spybot. Neither of 'em finds everything, but together they do pretty well.

Another thought - if you’ve run the spyware stuff and it doesn’t help, start up Windows in safe mode and see if you have the same problems. I’m pretty sure WinXP has a “Save mode with Network Connections” mode. If you don’t see the problem when running in that mode, then chances are you have something installed that’s causing problems with your connection.

I’ll also second what astro said - if your kid is using your computer, you have NO CLUE what got on there. My mother used to constantly have problems with her computer. It finally got so slow that it was virtually unusable. Why? Because she let her grandkids do anything they wanted. It’s amazing the crap that kids will just hit the “Sure, install now!” button on and thus screw your system.

What else do you have installed? Kazaa? Gator? Any cute lil’ things that make your cursor into a cartoon, or add cartoons to your e-mail? All that crap makes your computer run slowly, as they typically sit in the background collecting data about you and then upload it to marketing sites. Beware.

5

I think astro has the best suggestion at this point. If you’re having persistent problems with Win98 it’s often best to blow away the partition and install from scratch. Of course you’ll need to back up any important data and configurations beforehand. If you don’t have a good backup method it may be easiest to get a new hard drive, install Windows fresh on it, then copy any needed files from your old one.

6

Just an idea - check your connection settings in IE

Tools > Internet Options > Conections (tab) > Lan settings

The only box that should be checked is “automatically detect settings”

Another idea would be to check your router. You may want to update to the latest firmware, and then to a complete reset, and reconfigure.
Good luck!

7

Guys, it sounds like the OP has already re-installed windows from scratch (several times) and has re-installed IE and OE several times. Doing it again probably wont help. That`s why I thought it may be an incompatible or broken hardware issue. Something that may only show up when using IE and OE.

Make sure you run the spy-ware suggested by others before going too much further. You may want to take a look at your startup menu to see what is running in the background, and/or, what percentage of your RAM is being used up during the applications in question. If your CPU and RAM usage is unusually high for a sustained period you should let us know.

8

I read the articles and I did not get the impression the re-install was “from scratch” form a formatted disk but was a re-install on top of an existing OS that was giving the problem. This procedure can work if the problem is driver issues, but is next to useless for low level registry and/or settings corruption or defective binaries.

9

Okay. I’m addressing these out of order since some of them overlap…

Ram - 256K. It could be memory but since it occurs even when I have just turned the machine on and only have IE open - one window at that - I’m not really convinced that it is. Especially since this machine came with 64k and it never occurred then.

Cache - I have the cache size set to 1 mb and set to delete all TIFs when IE closes. I also manually delete any leftovers once a week when I do my regular maintenance.

Start-up menu - nothing is enabled except what I need to run/protect the machine.

Kids on computer - I hope I’m not coming across as one of those “oh, but MY kid is PERFECT” parents, but my son knows this is MY computer and he uses it at my pleasure. Therefore, he’s very careful NOT to allow crap to download. And he’s not even really a “kid”, he’s 18. He is seldom even on, and only then to chat with one group in IRC (his gaming buddies), play one game, and chat with his buds on AIM. Furthermore, if there is any crap on the computer, whether through my fault or his, it managed to get by…let’s see again what I have…McAfee, Houe Call, Zone Alarm, Spybot, Ad-Aware, and Ad-Watch. Oh, I also have two registry checkers that list any new software or registry changes that I run weekly. And I regularly delete cookies I don’t need. Did I leave anything out? So I do at least have a clue as to what my son is doing. Again, nothing catches everything, so it could be a virus or spyware, but again I am not convinced. As far as I am able to determine, if it were spyware, it would be because a program is intermittently hijacking the modem to “phone home”, and as such it would occur anytime the computer is conntected, not just when IE or OE is in use. Correct me if I’m wrong and I’ll try to dig even deeper into the spyware issue.

Astro, are you saying I have to reformat the hard drive in order to reinstall windows? If so, why? If not, then please clarify what you mean.

mjcocat, yours is a new suggestion, but alas! it did not work either.

whuckfistle, you are thinking along the same lines as me - have tried all the software solutions, so I have been thinking it may be hardware. In fact, my CPU usage frequently goes up to 100% and does stay there for a sustained period. I asked about this on that other forum I linked to but got no responses. I asked again in a new thread and linked to my previous threads, asking if the problem could be an overheating or dying CPU but again got no response. I finally asked in yet another thread “what are the symptoms of a dying or overheating CPU” and the only response was basically “what is the problem you are having”. When I explained them again, I got all the usual “it must be spyware/virus/start-up/memory” answers that I have been getting for the past year. I know SO LITTLE about hardware I can’t even guess if it could be a hardware problem, much less which hardware is the culprit.

That’s when I decided to come here for help. Is the CPU usage a clue?

Thanks, everyone.

10

Honestly I doubt it would be a dying CPU. Common signs would be random rebooting, or unsucessful boot ups.

You may want to see what else is loading with your startup. Only a small number of programs are loaded from the startup folder. The more common method would be the registry. Thhe easiest and safest way to deal with this is to run “msconfig” from the run command on the start menu (assuming you are running win98). click on the startup tab and uncheck any program you don’t need. I would recommend disabeling (sp?) all firewall software and spyware software. One of these may be using up all of your resources. Initially I would uncheck everything and see if the problem goes away, you can always come back and recheck them. Do realize that when these are unchecked the programs are not running, so be careful with virus software and such.

11

astro, you posted while I was formulating my reply. I have Yes, you are correct, I have only reinstalled over the existing installation. I have completely ripped and reinstalled fresh IE and OE, but not win98se itself. This is because I have no disk, I only have cab files. I don’t know if that’s SOP for pre-installed hardware or if it’s only done that way for these el cheapo packages. Also, I don’t even know how to uninstall windows. However, since it’s only an issue when IE or OE is in use, I had come to the conclusion it was probably not a windows issue, so I never bothered to find out how. But since I don’t know what “binaries” are as respects this problem, I don’t know if I should go out and find a win98se disc and attempt to uninstall windows or not. Can you elaborate? Thanks!

12

I have done this several times over the past several months. In fact, I have come at it from both ends - I have disabled each item by itself, and I have disabled ALL items and added them back one at a time. Even when I have NOTHING running except explorer, my isp and modem, and IE, it will do it.

Oh, and thanks for finally clarifying for me what the symptoms of a dying CPU are! In my previous research I had come to learn that the CPU in this computer are notoriously short-lived, but could not find how to know if it’s dying!

13

another idea is a program might be tightly intergrated into IE. For example, when kazaa is installed it also installs another program. This program displays search results in a frame within google or anyother search engine. It almost looks as if it came directly from google. Back to the point - this program is spyware and will not be uninstalled with any of the spybot or adaware programs. The only way I have found is to download a utility that shows what programs are bound to IE. It also gives you the option to kill them. I have done some searching for you, but I can’t seem to find the utility. It has been a while since I have used it. Maybe someone else on the board here will recognize what I am talking about. This might be a good place for you to start though.

14

Do you mean BHO Demon? If so, it has never showed anything except the Google toolbar I knowingly and willingly installed.

15

Sorry Astro, you appear to have been correct.

If you havent done a clean re-install yet, lorinada, then I would recommend it. Problem is, you need the 98SE disk. You also cant uninstall IE after you upgrade to 6.0 from some earlier version. This also makes it hard to repair or troublshoot too.
You really need to do re-format and a re-install of the OS. Then you can download the upgrades of the OS and IE.

Once an upgraded version of IE 6.0 is broken ( as your appears to be) you have to start all over again. This has been from my experience and info that I have recieved from some computer folks.

16

Yipes. That’s going to open up a whole can of worms, then, because Compaq puts part of their BIOS on the hard drive and I have yet found information that looks reliable on how to format the disk on this model. At least not that I, a novice and a dummy, can understand.

Okay, folks, thanks for your advice, even though it’s exactly what I was hoping y’all would NOT say! :slight_smile:

17

You trust Windows that far? More often than not, Windows piddles and pokes around and causes delays when allowed to do thing automatically.

The only good thing about the automatic functions is that they allow a non-technical person to get the thing going at all. They are not guaranteed to get you the best settings, however.

18

lorinada It may be worth your while to have a PC tech look at your machine before you scrap the OS. At least then youll be confident that what you are doing is the right thing. When Ive done the “format and re-install” dance, it usually takes about 6 hours to get the machine back to where it started from. You have to run f-disk and then re-install the OS. Then you have to find all the drivers and software for everything that youve added over the years. This coupled with about thirty- five re-starts and various other decisions that have to be made - could take most of a day. Hey, but its all worth it in the end because you get rid of all the crap that was on the machine that you didn`t use anymore and you have a fresh OS to work with.

And then don`t do whatever you did to get to this point again.:smack:

19

If you have an older Compaq machine that stored BIOS settings in a small hidden partition this will not be a problem. Jist ignore the small hidden parition as it does not sound as if you have a partition corruption issue that would necessitate re-partitioning the drive. You just need to make a boot disk using the Control Panel’s boot disk creation applet.

Boot the machine with this disk then format the existing primary C: partition and put the system files on it - ie “format c: /s” . If (as seems likely) the existing drive setup was put on with a Compaq “restore disk”, which basically blows out the entire disk and puts on a Compaq hardware specific version of 98, you will need a Win98Se install disk and some floppies or burned CDs with the appropriate audio and video drivers. You can usually get these drivers from the Compaq website.

If the Win98se install disk is not a full install disk but an upgrade (which the majority are) you will also need a WIN95 CD or floppy set for ownership verification before install will proceed.

1: Back up all important data

2: Make boot floppy and boot system

3: Format C: partition from boot floppy and put system files on it - " format c: /s" (I’m not sure how this is showing but there is a line space between the “C:” and the “/s” switch)

4: Assuming that the 98se CD will be identified as the the D:\ or E:\ drive go to the D:\win98 directory and run “setup.exe”

5: Windows setup will proceed - after scanning the system it ask for the CD key and then a step later will ask for a Win 95 CD if it is an upgrade version. If it is a full version it will just keep trucking. The full and the upgrade are essentially identical with the excepction of the verification challenge.

6: Let install proceed. If the 98se disk cannot find the necessary audio, video or modem drivers onboard you will need to have a disk with them at the ready. If you no longer intend on using the modem you are better off simply removing it from the chassis before re-installing. Install will proceed without the audio and video drivers but the screen will look like a low res, low color “safe mode” screen until you give the system the correct drivers.

www.driverguide.com will also have most Compaq drivers. Use “drivers” and “all” respectively for the userid and password.