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SOME small downloads take forever!


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#1
rch427

rch427

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I've noticed a strange thing about my system lately. I can download or save any video clip or song file (say, 1.5mb) in 10 seconds or so, and an entire album of MP3s in about a minute. However, when I try to save (not just download) some images, they take forever, and tie up all of my system resources. For example, I was individually saving some photos of 250kb each, and each one took about 3 minutes to save! I have no idea why.

I checked Process Explorer and it showed that my system resources were all in use. I've checked HijackThis!, Spybot S&D, and every other utility I have to see if anything else is at work, but as far as I can tell, it's just downloading the picture, although it takes 3 minutes. I have dedicated cable, and most web pages -- even huge ones -- load within a few seconds, so I don't think it's the pipeline, nor does it seem to be the fault of the server that the page is using; it seems to save slowly from any source.

And I don't know if it's related, but sometimes, when I go to close a FireFox window -- just one window by itself, not a window with a lot of tabs -- it can take 5 to 10 seconds for that window to close.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance --

Robert

2ghz WIntel desktop, 1gb RAM, 120gb HDD, XP-Pro, FireFox 2
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#2
hfcg

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Hello, and welcome to Geeks To Go.
You have overlooked one important factor that will effect your download speeds.
The equipment on the other end.
If the site you are downloading from is experiencing high traffic, or is just plain slow, you will have slower downloads.
Some sites are faster than others.
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#3
rch427

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Hello, and welcome to Geeks To Go.
You have overlooked one important factor that will effect your download speeds.
The equipment on the other end.
If the site you are downloading from is experiencing high traffic, or is just plain slow, you will have slower downloads.
Some sites are faster than others.


Thanks for the response. I had initially suspected this as well, but there are two things that make me think otherwise. First, I've tried saving graphics from five different sites, and they've all taken many minutes to download. And second, I tried saving the same images on my wife's computer (which is right next to mine), and although her processor is 3ghz, she has less RAM and a smaller HDD, but it took her computer just a few seconds to save each picture. It really does seem to be on my end.

Any other ideas?

Thanks --

Robert
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#4
hfcg

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Could you tell me what Operating system your wife has?
Also what security programs on each computer?
This could be because you have a program that is scanning the images before they are downloaded. (images are a great way to hide text.)
As for Fire fox closing slowly, I do not use Fire fox so I am not knowledgeable about it.
I have had to uninstall I.E.7 and reinstall it because of a corrupt download causing it to not close properly.
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#5
rch427

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Could you tell me what Operating system your wife has?
Also what security programs on each computer?
This could be because you have a program that is scanning the images before they are downloaded. (images are a great way to hide text.)
As for Fire fox closing slowly, I do not use Fire fox so I am not knowledgeable about it.
I have had to uninstall I.E.7 and reinstall it because of a corrupt download causing it to not close properly.


She has XP-Pro as well. The only real differences between our computers are that her CPU is a bit faster than mine, I run FireFox and she runs IE6, and her only security is Microsoft Firewall, whereas I always have Avast running. However, while I was saving graphics, I watched my Process Explorer to see if any other programs were using any resources, and the only one that was even slightly active was Microsoft Services, which was using less than 2% of resources, and even that, only sporadically. No antivirus or other security processes were running.

However, I did just discover something. I went into FireFox Tools-->Options, and under the Main tab, deselected "Downloads: Show downloads when downloading a file", and under the Privacy tab, deselected "Remember what I've downloaded". Now, downloading a graphic takes about 15 seconds for a 250kb image. So, it's a lot better, but not as fast as I'd expect, given that I can save a 1.5mb video in even less time.

Any thoughts?

Thanks --

Robert
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#6
hfcg

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Are you saving the files or running them?
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#7
rch427

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Are you saving the files or running them?


Saving them.
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