Sporadic problems with computer.

[babbler]

Since Monday, I've been experiencing sporadic problems with my computer. On two or three occasions I couldn't turn it off and had to use the on off switch on the back of the tower. (It has a proper name no doubt). I'm also not getting online everytime I try, I get a time out message. I've reset my modem (Speedstream) but still no go. And when I am on line, some pages (like Hotmail) stall when opening and surfing is sometimes really really slow. I reboot and that seems to help a little. Tech guy at sympatico went through a series of adjustments - like creating a new dsl connection, uninstalling the Network card and then rebooting to have it reinstalled. He thinks it's the problem. But right now and most of today I've had only minor issues - like crawling browser. This morning, I was only able to get on line by disabling my antivirus and zone alarm firewall, then loading them afterwards. But at this bootup, it connected with no problem. There hasn't been any unusual noises from the tower or drive.
I've got two resident antivirus (Nod and BitDefender) have done several online anitvirus and trojan checks and all come up clean.
Any suggestions? My computer is over 3 years old (maybe 4?).

PCII 450 (ASUS Motherboard)
256Ram
13GB HD (8GB free)
Win98SE
ZoneAlarm / PopUpStopper / CookieWall / SpyBot ? AdAware / SpyBlaster / RegClean / BeClean / RegSeeker / HDValet / EasyCleaner

I'm pretty regular at maintenance and have had no previous serious problems, infections etc.
thanks in advance


__________________
The important thing is never to stop asking questions. Einstein

 

[vop]

I experienced a similar problem with ZoneAlarm (ZA)in particular. Not so long ago my 800Mhz computer became unable to load ZA properly with everything else that was loading at startup.

Seemingly, some recent update to one of my other startup processes was enough to cause reliability problems in startup and shutdown. I no longer load ZA at startup and everything now works as reliably as ever.

I am told that there is are potential problems with the order in which startup processes get launched. Any minor update could result in changes to the registry and impact and change the launch order in the startup list. One process may in fact tie up or deny resources needed by another startup process - one or both processes may fail to respond or may load incompletely (especially on slower PCs).

 

[babbler]

So how do you manage your ZoneAlarm startup now? BTW, I'm using v2.6.2632. Think an upgrade would help or make it worse?
thanks for you response.

 

[Xemus]

In theory, getting the latest version of a program is always a good idea. Notice I said in theory, but you might want to give it a try.
What happens if you do a continuos ping on a site?
Start -> Run -> CMD
ping

http://www.google.com

-t
Watch the results of that and see how many time out.

http://www.closedsocket.com

 

[vop]

I had resorted to loading ZA manually but have since mostly stopped doing so since I am satisfied that my NAT router is sufficient to most of my needs (external shield).

An updated ZA may not make anything better since the deciding factor or incompatibilty may be the order that the processes load and/or module dependencies (maybe worth a try). An update may help to cause the load order to change - for example, loading last might prove very helpful.

It may also be possible to fiddle with the loading order but I haven't bothered. I was getting two (2) processes 'not responding' in my starup process. While (the resource intensive) ZA was loading some other processes seemed to be denied access to needed resources or were timing out.

 

[babbler]

The motherboard died on Monday so I brought the computer in for an estimate. For $300Cdn I now have 80GB hard drive (3 partitions), an AMD Athlon XP-M 1600+ 1.40GHzProcessor, 224 MG RAM WindowsXP Pro, etc. Means little to me. I now have to learn how to use XP and customize it to my liking. The tech guy also put a Power DVD on and I only have a CD player - so can I play DVDs on it?
Is there a 'best' site to learn about XP Pro for the lazy/simple minded?
thanks for your replies BTW.

 

[babbler]

I have 2 10GB drives and 1 60GB drive and want to put things I've saved on CDs onto one of the other drives (MP3s etc) but can't figure out how to do it.
It also has Ghost and Norton Antivirus installed. I want to keep Ghost but not Norton. I've used NOD Antivirus and Bitdefender both and ZoneAlarm too. Is it okay to go back to these all or should I leave XP's own firewall?
Would appreciate some suggestions or links to where to get these kinds of questions looked into.
thanks again!

 

[Xemus]

You need a DVD-ROM to play DVD's. Sorry, but it sounds like the techs messed up if they preinstalled DVD software. Luckily, you can get a DVD-ROM for about $30 (US) from

http://www.newegg.com

and other sites.
As far as learning XP, there are a few sites around. Its better to look for specific things on

http://www.google.com

For general XP news, try

http://www.winxpnews.com

and

http://www.techtv.com

http://www.closedsocket.com