3 replies to this topic

[eBayvictim]

I don't know if it's because I'm still using an old Dell with XP, or if it's firefox, or infection or what.

All kinds of goofy quirks in the last few days,

Connections to any site take forever now
Sometimes I get:
"a secure connection was unavailable" ... or something like that
or
the standard unable to connect to server, check connections blah blah blah

The other day I had a cable tech look at the service, he said it was standard and good, yet he could not get my modem to reboot properly ... and had no answer ... I killed everything and then restarted it all and the service came back.

Bought a new modem today from the cable company - no improvement.

Other issues - Youtube and Facebook are extremely slow, tend not to fully load, videos often lose volume which comes back if I click on the vid and restart it, videos also freeze although the audio will continue, and now getting a youtube vid to open is a lunch-break wait.

I reinstalled flash and shockwave fresh ... turned off addons etc ... turned off firewall, tried another browser, nothing changes.

I'm out of patience trying to experiment with firefox help forums ...

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Len

 

[Ztruker]

How does it behave if you boot to Safe Mode with Networking? If better then something is starting at boot that is causing the problem.

Advanced startup options - XP
Advanced startup options - Vista
Advanced startup options - Windows 7
Advanced startup options - Windows 8

Use msconfig to determine what is causing the problem

These are good tutorials on using msconfig in XP, Vista or Windows 7:
How to use msconfig in Windows XP
How to use msconfig in Windows Vista
How to use msconfig in Windows 7 and Windows 8

Click on Start then Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
Click on the Startup tab (for Windows 8, the Startup tab has a link to open Task Manager/Startup tab. Use that.), record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Reboot and see if it runs better.
If yes then use msconfig to enable several items at a time till you find the culprit.

If no, start msconfig again.

Click on the Startup tab then enable all the items that were initially enabled (that you recorded).

Click on the Services tab.

Check the Hide All Microsoft Services box, record what is currently starting then click the Disable All button.
Again, do a regular boot, see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable services till you find the culprit.

Once you've found the culprit, uninstall it or find out how to eliminate it from your system. Simply disabling it in msconfig is a temporary fix at best.
Enable everything else you disabled.

 

Could also be malware. Go to the Spyware / Malware / Virus Removal forum, read the info there and follow the posted directions. Once you receive a clean bill of health, come back here if you have any additional questions or concerns or it turns out not to be a malware problem.

Please be patient as that is a very busy area. If you do not receive a response in 3 days, post a message here: What To Do If You Have No Response In 3 Days?

Do not reply to your post there as the malware folks look for posts with no replies first.
 

[eBayvictim]

Thanks Rich ... I've never done that ... so it's going to take me a little while to study your instructions and do it, then I'll post right back with results.
I thought I could stick with XP ... that was a big mistake.
I've also noticed in the other forums that people have been complaining about firefox and issues with youtube for quite some time now.
I tried one fix suggested in a firefox help forum, changing a setting from false to true ... if it helped, I'm not sharp enough to see the diff.
I appreciate you guys here ... haven't had to ask for help for a long time.
Time for me to upgrade to a new system ... but I need to fix this mess first so I have a stable system to get all my stuff from when I move.

[Ztruker]

Definitely time to move away from XP. Most of the browsers are dropping support for it soon. You should start thinking about a new computer which will come with Windows 10. I have it on all 3 of my computers and really like it.