certain sites hang up

I go to certain websites and can't get anything to click. The cursor turns into a hand. I do control/alt/delete and it indicates NOT RESPONDING. For instance, it happens everytime I go to www.pgatour.com now. It happened when I went to www.whatthetech.com a moment ago but I went through the process again and this time it worked. What could this be?

Some more information would sure be nice.

Laptop? PC? Version of Windows?

How does this computer connect to the Internet?

Are there other computers at your location that connect fine?

When did this start? Any recent changes in hardware or software?

What have you done to try and fix it so thus far?

You say "certain sites" - does that mean you can consistently (within reason) connect to other sites with no problems?

Have you done a complete malware scan? One of the firsts thing I do when troubleshooting a PC is make sure I have a clean platform to work from. That's clean of heat trapping dust and dirt, as well as malware. Here's a link to my canned text on Cleaning Out Malware. Use it if you don't already have a complete security suite and disk cleaning utilities to rid your system of malware and clutter. You can also use it as a guide to augment or build your own security suite, and to help you develop or enhance a "Practicing Safe Computing" self-discipline.

Windows 2000 PC. Connect to Net via Cable modem. I have two other laptops. One is brand new and doesn't hang. Another is two yrs old and hangs up just a bit. Not as much as this pc. This has started more over the past month. I did increase my virtual memory setting a while back. I run spybot 2-3x/wk. I defrag 1x/wk. I run Uniblue Registry 2.0 1-2x/wk (which I installed about 2-3 months ago). I can consistently connect to other sites. Thanks for the link and I will do what you suggest.

Well, I can browse both sites easily, having also Win2k and cablemodem. But what is your browser? You never tell us this important part. I using an old Firefox 1.0.8 and everything worked well. I even checked the Blue Monster video, hehe, cool When I got old or tired playing with computers, I might try golf as well

Why did you increase your PF? To what? How much RAM do you have? How much free disk space?

I have 1 gig of Ram. Used space of Hard drive = 24.1GB, free space on Hard drive = 13.0GB. The virtual memory window indicates: 768 MB initial size; 1115MB max size; current registry size 34MB; max registry size 54MB. I moved this up a while back and I think I did that to see if it would help with files or windows not hanging. Can;t quite remember. I use IE6.0. Haven't updated to 7.0 b/c I understood there were problems with OE (email).

A couple things here.

Haven't updated to 7.0 b/c I understood there were problems with OE (email).

Yeah - but that was two years ago when IE7 first came out, a few people had problems with OE integration with a Hotmail account and some had problems with hyperlinks. There are now nearly 300 million PCs worldwide with IE7 - triple that of one year ago. A lot of them use OE - it's free and it works. If only 10% use OE, it is not likely even Microsoft would leave 30 million customers stranded with broken email clients. Experience has shown that the majority of folks that experienced problems with IE7 (and SP2 for that matter) had a problem computer to begin with, or did not properly prepare the computer for the major upgrade(s). Fixes have been out for a long time: (MSKB Article 929867 - Hyperlinks do not work in OE, KB Article 318387 - Reinstall or Repair IE.

With any major upgrade of any complex product, a few (hopefully, only a few) will have problems. Considering Windows and IE is expected to work perfectly on close to 1Billion PCs, from 10,000s of PC makers using 1000s of different motherboards, with 100s of different CPUs, and 1000s of graphics cards, again, from 1000s of different makers, of whom they have no control over (how many different possible HW configurations is that?). Let's not forget that each PC off the assembly line becomes a unique PC just seconds after the first user turns it on for the first time, and Windows starts to configure itself for the network, printer, monitor, and other hardware it suddenly "discovers", and as each machine then takes on a different "quality" as defenses are setup to thwart the near immediate onslaught from bad guys!

So while I certainly have some "issues" with Microsoft's "business/marketing" tactics (past and current) that causes even me to stop and question just about everything Microsoft does, from the "engineering" (HW and SW) aspects, MS has done remarkably well. If you don't think so, there are plenty of free alternatives.

So for all reading, if you have not upgraded to the latest patches and upgrades because you heard there were some problems, check the facts. Are they still true? Probably not if your hardware was designed to support XP or later.

This is where I normally would take the liberty to chastise the poster a little bit for not being a responsible Internet user by staying back at IE6. By staying back at IE6 (even if using an alternative browser), the PC is more vulnerable to compromise, and more importantly, is more susceptible in becoming a threat to the rest of us! And this is where I would normally say as soon as your current problems are resolved, you need to get your system up to the latest security levels, which includes IE7, and the latest OS security patches.

But, you said you have Win2K and according the IE7 System Requirements Page, you need XPSP2, WS2003SP1, or Vista - no Win2K, for IE7. So assuming your system is fully updated with all necessary security patches and critical updates, then as Roseanne Roseannadana would say, "Never-mind!"

The virtual memory window indicates: 768 MB initial size; 1115MB max size

Although the old rule of thumb for setting the page file size is just that, "old", it is still good for a starting place. The old rule says to set your PF to 1.5 X RAM. So in your case, with 1Gb of RAM, that should be 1536Mb (1024 + 512). I normally recommend a "fixed" size PF as that eliminates the chances for file (including the page file) fragmentation due to PF dynamic resizing, a "potential" problem when running low on disk space, and/or with a heavily fragmented drive.

If you have more than one hard drive, I generally recommend putting the PF on the second drive (preferably as the very first file saved on the second drive). In any case, I recommend you:

• Run Disk Cleaner or CCleaner from the above link (ALWAYS delete the 1000s of temporary files off your drive before defragging drives)
• Remove old PF (Remember to click on "Set")
• Reboot into Safe Mode
• Run chkdsk /r (note the space before the "/")
• Defrag the hard drive while in Safe Mode
• Set up new PF (again, click "Set")
• Reboot

You are very comprehensive and knowledgeable. I will do what you are suggesting but have a couple of questions first: (1) "remove old PF" - not exactly sure what that means. I could go to the virtual memory screen and remove the setting of 768MB but what would I put in instead? (2) Remember to click on "SET" - what does that mean? How do I do that? (3) "Run chkdsk /r (note the space before the "/")" - does that mean that once the safe mode screen is up click on start/run and type in that block? And what will that command do? or what will that command tell me about the computer? (4) "Set up new PF (again, click "Set")" - does this mean to return again to virtual memory and type in 768MB? Sorry about these questions. I just needed to make sure so I don't have any other foolish things that I do.

You are very comprehensive… …but have a couple of questions first:
(1) "remove old PF" - not exactly sure what that means. I could go to the virtual memory screen and remove the setting of 768MB but what would I put in instead?
(2) Remember to click on "SET" - what does that mean? How do I do that?
(3) "Run chkdsk /r (note the space before the "/")" - does that mean that once the safe mode screen is up click on start/run and type in that block? And what will that command do? or what will that command tell me about the computer?
(4) "Set up new PF (again, click "Set")" - does this mean to return again to virtual memory and type in 768MB?

Sorry about these questions. I just needed to make sure so I don't have any other foolish things that I do.

Sorry, it would seem I was not too comprehensive! First, the foolish question is the one not asked! So ask away.

I know XP's page file works the same way as W2K, but the menu and setup screens may be slightly different. I am using XP for example, so do ask questions if W2K is too different.

My instructions were vague. Assuming you have one drive and you want to change the PF on that drive, removing the old PF and "setting" a new is done in one step. The "Set" part is just that - you must click the "Set" button for your changes to actually take place. I am pretty sure that is the same with W2K. To ensure there is no confusion in terms, the Page File is the name of the actual file the operating system uses for it's Virtual Memory (VM) - though technically different, the terms are often used interchangeably. Also seen is swap file, swap disk, disk cache and probably several other.

So, to change your current Virtual Memory setting to 1536 Mb (1.5 times your RAM) you would enter 1536 for both the initial and maximum sizes. This will create a fixed size page file on your disk.

Chkdsk is a command-line (DOS prompt) tool within Windows that checks disk volumes for errors. If run with the proper switch, it will also attempt to repair errors it finds. Chkdsk can repair bad sectors, lost clusters, cross-linked files, and directory errors. To use chkdsk, you must be logged on as an administrator, or be in the administrators group.

1. Click Start, and then Run.
2. In the 'Open' text box, enter cmd, then press Enter.
3. At the command prompt, enter chkdsk [drive]: /r (note the space before the "/r" and be sure to replace [drive] with the applicable drive letter). Press Enter to start.

Note: If chkdsk finds files in use (and it probably will), you will receive the following message:

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

Press Y then press Enter to allow chkdsk to run at next bootup, then reboot.

Note: You will see many folks suggest using the /f switch instead of /r. The /r switch is often considered better because it also instructs chkdsk to search for and attempt to repair bad sectors. /r includes /f. To see the switch descriptions, enter chkdsk /? at that command prompt, and press Enter.

Well nothing has changed after doing all the mechanics. It makes me wonder if I have inadvertantly set something in my Comodo firewall program. So I uninstalled that program and tried the websites that hang … they continue to hang even without the firewall installed. I have since re-installed Comodo. This isn't a huge deal for me. I just thought if it could be fixed then I'd like to fix it. Not sure what else to do.

I think you should refer to the What theTech HijackThis Log Procedures for complete instructions on running HijackThis, then post a log where instructed. Hopefully the HJT analysts will see something. Please refer to this post so they can catch up, then post back here with a status when done. Sorry could not be of more help here.