MS Instant messenger & Outlook Exp. slowdown 1

[mudskipper]

I am helping somebody with their computer, but I admit that I am stumped.

The system connects to the internet via DSL--and had been fine. Although seemingly unrelated, the problem started right after win98 dropped the sound driver (and we had re-installed it).

Now, when you try to sign in to MSIM, it might sign in after a few seconds--other times it might take over 30 minutes. During the time that the system does not connect to MSIM, you cannot access email through Outlook Exp.

I searched through google groups and MS support, but have found nothing substantial so far. Anybody have any ideas?

Please feel free to submit a guess on this one--I am looking for any ideas!!!!

Thank you in advance! Mudskipper
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Groucho said it best- "A four year-old child could understand this! Quick! Run out and find me a four year-old child: I can't make heads nor tails out of this!"

 

[Win98User]

First I would disable the sound driver in the Sound,video and game controllers section of the system device manager. This is to attempt to verify that it is a sound related fault.

If disabling the sound driver cures the problem (and I will assume that it will) then I would remove that sound driver by deleting it from aformentioned place.

Then, look carefully at the driver that you are going to put back on - As best as you can, make sure you have the latest driver - if you are certain that you have the latest driver then you must go backwards and locate progressively older drivers.

If you need to find other drivers try joining

http://www.driversguide.com

its a handy site.

Hope it helps.

Regards.

 

[RabidPenguin]

Sounds like there is a resource conflict between the sound card and your nic card. Check your device manager to see if the sound card and ethernet card are both on the same IRQ.

 

[mudskipper]

Hello--sorry for the delay in replies. It has been a little busy here, and looks to continue to be so for a bit...

Win98User-- DUH ;-) Thanks. I hate to admit that this never actually occurred to me! I will do this and post back with the results.

RabidPenguin-- Thanks also...I was thinking along the same lines until I actually got to witness the issue first hand.

It looks like the system is running IE6 (w/OEXP6). It had been working fine for quite some time. It seems that the problem is not just when you try to sign in to MSIM. If you are logged off of it, it can also occure when simply trying to open Outlook express (or check for new messages if it is already open).

The interesting part, however, is that you can surf just fine during that time. IMHO, this would suggest that the connection itself (and the NIC) would be fine....maybe..... Is it possible (if the ISP were having trouble) that we could browse webpages, but not be able to access the other items at times? I have not heard of this, but....

Again, thank you for the input. I will try to disable the sound and get back to you. Mudskipper
___________________________________________________________________________________

Groucho said it best- "A four year-old child could understand this! Quick! Run out and find me a four year-old child: I can't make heads nor tails out of this!"

 

[mudskipper]

UPDATE:

It looks like the sound was actually the issue. It was resolved by updating the sound driver on this particular card.

Best guess is that the system had an updated driver, worked fine, and after windows dropped it, we put an old version back in.

Thanks for all of your replies!! Good info on both of them!

This looks like another case of "don't look past the obvious stuff". Mudskipper
___________________________________________________________________________________

Groucho said it best- "A four year-old child could understand this! Quick! Run out and find me a four year-old child: I can't make heads nor tails out of this!"