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General discussion

Loosing Internet Connection-Slowing down again!?!

by Fire1946 Jun 1, 2005 4:30PM PDT

I run a Gateway laptop with XP Home, 2Ghz, 1 GB RAM with a wireless network. I leave the computer running constantly and it receives email in the background ( Outlook) during the night. Several weeks ago, I had to notice ( no new software installed) that I can after several hours not connect to the Internet with Explorer or Netscape Browser, but can receive and send mail, talk on Skype etc. I receive the message that the website could not be found..this message comes up after a considerable time. Only when I restart the computer I can get on the Internet, but at first it takes a considerable time (All Antispy programs do not show any spyware; defrag etc. did not help at all!). It also seems that the computer is getting slower again...I had already reformatted the hard disk approx. 6 months ago..and then it worked fine until recently. Could it be that the harddisk itself has a defect? Gateway Tech Support could not help at all.
Peter
pfeuerst@tampabay.rr.com

Discussion is locked

9 Posts
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Loosing Internet Conn.......
by Earthquake McGoon Jun 1, 2005 5:24PM PDT

I had some similar trouble tonight. Clicked on *Firefox*,
got error message: *cannot display page*! closed and retried. Same thing. Closed & retried, finally, after very slow loading, got *Firefox* but no home page (Hotsheet.com) Could not enter new address, could not open *Bookmarks*. Closed and went to IE. Same story.
*cannot display page*! Closed and retried several times.
Each time a little faster; finally got IE but no *Hotsheet*.
Closed and retried several times, each time faster than the last. Finally got *Hotsheet*. Went to *thunderbird*.Clicked on message from *Amazon.com*. Got *cannot display page*. After several attempts, got *Amazon*.Tried to place order & had the same experience with each page. Finally placed order.
Went to IE and put *http:/housecall.trendmicro.com*
into address bar. After several tries, got it. Ran *Housecall*, No viruses!
Went to Mozilla.org/Firefox and downloaded *Firefox
1.0.4. Removed Firefox and reinstalled.
ZL Security Suite showed no virus. Ad-Aware SE showed no spyware. Don't know what happened. Don't know if it's over yet! Will e-mail you if any further info.
Post anything you have to *Forums-WinXP*, OK?
Running Compaq S3000V, PIII 1.9gHz, WinXP, 1gB RAM, ZL Security Suite, BitDefender, Spyware Blaster, Ad-Aware, 100gB 7200RPM HD.

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3 areas to explore.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Jun 1, 2005 10:30PM PDT
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3 areas......
by Earthquake McGoon Jun 2, 2005 3:59AM PDT

Absolutely amazing! Went to IDE-DMA, and sure enough,
one setting in the secondary IDE was set to PIO! Reset to DMA if available, and everything cleared up! What a
messy problem with such an easy, step-by-step solution!
Thank you very much, Bob!

Earthquake McGoon

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3 areas......
by Earthquake McGoon Jun 2, 2005 4:00AM PDT

Absolutely amazing! Went to IDE-DMA, and sure enough,
one setting in the secondary IDE was set to PIO! Reset to DMA if available, and everything cleared up! What a
messy problem with such an easy, step-by-step solution!
Thank you very much, Bob!

Earthquake McGoon

P.S. Ran *Housecall* and it made no difference. Ditto
Ad-Aware & ZL Security Suite.

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The mess in this area is...
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Jun 2, 2005 4:08AM PDT

XP can show the channel as being in DMA mode, but in reality it's in PIO. It's a bonafide bug that I wish they would fix. It also causes me to push people if they really performed the procedure or "just looked."

-> Best of continued luck and thanks for the report back.

Bob

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Problem not solved
by Fire1946 Jun 3, 2005 3:47PM PDT

I have checked the settings under Device Manager, as suggest, and just for the sake of it changed to PIO mode. It was with all devices in DMA mode! Problem is still there!?! No antivirus program showed a virus.
I have another laptop, HP Omnibook, with XP Prof, same configuration and there I never get disconnected. As this happens on this Gateway laptop the second time within less than 6 months that it gets sclower and automatically disconnects to the Internet ( only Explorer and Netscape, other programs like Outlook and Skype working), I wonder whether it is the harddisk?
Peter
pfeuerst@tampabay.rr.com

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Problem not..........
by Earthquake McGoon Jun 4, 2005 2:43AM PDT

The problem may not be solved, but putting everything into PIO mode certainly won't help! They SHOULD have been left in DMA. Other than that, I have no ideas. It was a PIO-DMA problem for me, and it is fixed.

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Response
by Fire1946 Jun 4, 2005 12:52PM PDT

It was in DMA mode and putting it in IPO mode was a test; now back to DMA mode and no changes! My other laptops, being on the same wireless network, work fine with the DMA mode ( and have SP 2 installed!?!).Is it thus the bios, harddisk??
Peter

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Response
by Earthquake McGoon Jun 5, 2005 2:38AM PDT

I must confess that I don't know. Maybe on of the Gurus
can help. Good luck

Earthquake McGoon

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