[conticreative]

Hi, a week or so ago my entire network was working flawlessly. Then one beautiful sunny morning my desktop (XP Pro, AMD, 2gig), wired to the network router, gave me the dreaded "limited or no connectivity" warning. Since this is not the present problem, I won't delve on it. Suffice to say that every computer on the network started experiencing network issues, but not at the same time. I spent hours on the phone and checking the router, connection, etc. with no results.

However, a couple of days later, the connection was restored but it continues to be spotty.

While trying to fix the issue, I did several things. One of them was to update my Comcast provided McAfee Security Suite.

The new suite is not an improvement but most importantly, since then my laptop started behaving very oddly:

1) Pressing ALT-Tab from IE7 to switch to another program freezes the entire computer. Pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL twice in rapid succession solves the problem (Alt-Tab from another app to IE7 works fine.

2) IE7 generally works sluggish, often cycling before showing a page.

3) The entire computer freezes randomly. Often waiting works, more often it doesn't and I have to hard reboot (unplug) the laptop. CTRL-ALT-DEL has no effect. Sometimes the Task manager appears (but I cannot interact with it) more often it doesn't.

I scanned all my computers multiple times, fixed registry, deactivated startup apps and so on. Nothing seems to cure the problem.

I'll be happy to upload a hijackthis log but only if requested (so this post won't be too long initially).

The network still gives me problems, but I solved it by installing Network Magic in order to make it easy on the rest of the family to reconnect if they get kicked off.

I would really appreciate some help here. Thank you

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This will make sure certain things are in place

Items in blue which are underlined are clickable to give more information about the process

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, right click any file then click delete, confirm delete

Click start, all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, then from system tools, run disc defragmenter.

Click start then run, type sfc /scannow then press enter, you need the XP CD

Windows File Protection will show a blue onscreen progress bar, when the bar goes, reboot

If you do not have an XP CD you can borrow a same version as was originally installed XP CD, if you downloaded SP2 then you need an SP1 XP CD

Download and install Tune Up 2007 Trial

Run Tune Up Disc Clean Up

Run Tune Up Registry Clean Up

Click Optimize and Improve to run Reg Defrag, which will take a few minutes and need a reboot. You should disable the antivirus programme to run this

Check the anti virus is running after the reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to optimize the computer, select computer with an internet connection from the drop down menu, this also requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to accelerate downloads, select the speed just above your actual connection speed, this requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to run system advisor

[Retired Tech]

This will make sure certain things are in place

Items in blue which are underlined are clickable to give more information about the process

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, right click any file then click delete, confirm delete

Click start, all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, then from system tools, run disc defragmenter.

Click start then run, type sfc /scannow then press enter, you need the XP CD

Windows File Protection will show a blue onscreen progress bar, when the bar goes, reboot

If you do not have an XP CD you can borrow a same version as was originally installed XP CD, if you downloaded SP2 then you need an SP1 XP CD

Download and install Tune Up 2007 Trial

Run Tune Up Disc Clean Up

Run Tune Up Registry Clean Up

Click Optimize and Improve to run Reg Defrag, which will take a few minutes and need a reboot. You should disable the antivirus programme to run this

Check the anti virus is running after the reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to optimize the computer, select computer with an internet connection from the drop down menu, this also requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to accelerate downloads, select the speed just above your actual connection speed, this requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to run system advisor

[conticreative]

Hi, thank you very much for the help. Looks like you have done this before.
I actually own tune up 2007 and I run it several times with no effect, but I am following your instructions now to the letter and I'll let you know what happens'
Thank you again

[conticreative]

I am sorry to report that after completing all the steps above to the letter I am still sufferingfrom random crashes, freezes and the inability to ALT=TAB from IE7 to any other application.
In addition to the steps above I also eliminated all non necessary start up applications.

This is what I noticed:

At startup the HP Wireless tool would frequentlyu crash. Not always. This is reported in many forums. I unistalled it
Often the computer will simply stop taking inputs. Clicking or pressing keys has no effect on it. ctrl-alt-del also has no immediate effect but given some time 2 to 5+ minutes) sometimes it unfreezes itself and tries to perform every operation that did not produce any result before (troies to catch up on the user input.

Alt-tab freeze still resumes after pressing ctrl-alt-del twice rapidly (not once) as it did before.

Next I'll try eliminating evey single start up app to see what happens.

Thank you again

[Retired Tech]

Can you re-install the video adapter software, or look for updated drivers

Have you got anything which gives temperatures


Click this for a guide to using Memtest



Click this to download Memtest

Run it overnight if possible