Hello Synthzone friends,

I'm hoping one of the PC & Windows XP experts here might be able to help me solve an IE 6 problem I'm having which began about 24-48 hours ago.

First of all, I have a high speed DSL connection, and prior to yesterday, webpages would typically come up quickly & smoothly, with the IE page load 'status bar' appearing at the bottom of the IE window, quickly beoming filled (green), and then the status bar instantly gone, allowing the webpage to be freely viewed and scrolled.

Begining yesterday, when I now call up IE initially, or when pulling up a new webpage, there is now often a 10 second delay before any inital webpage window appears, followed by the page load 'status bar' appearing. Oddly, after the status bar appears, and shows the green bar filled, there is now like a 3-5 second delay before the filled green status bar finaly disappears, and the webpage is able to be scrolled. Previously, as soon as the status bar was completely filled (green), the bar would immediately disappear, allowing the page to be viewed and scrolled right away.

My first suspcision was that this might have been caused by spyware or a computer virus. I ran all Norton Utilities modules and Norton Anti-Virus with the latest virus definitions and it came back clean. I also cleaned out (deleted) my IE 6 cache & temporary files. I then ran my Spyware Programs "SpySweeper 4.53" and AdAware SE Plus 6. Though SpySweeper came back with clean test results, Adaware came back and advised me that I had a possible browser HiJack attempt. Adaware quarantined the suspcious file, but when I go back into IE, after re-booting, I'm still experiencing the webpage loading glitch when I browse on IE. It's not terrible, but it certainly is annoying to have to put up with the webpage load delays. Btw, I verified that the problem is not in my DSL line itself, because I have another PC connected on the same ROUTER (LinkSys) that is not experiencing this problem at all. After swapping Router output lines, the problem still only presists on my main PC.

I hope I've provided enough details here for the SZ Windows PC Experts to help me solve & resolve the problem. Thanks in advance.

Scott

Hi Scott,

I haven't any idea what your problem may be but would suggest you remove the power from your modem, wait 15 seconds or so and plug it back in. This will reset it and that may solve your problem.

Good Luck! You do know computers are an instrument of the devil!!

Scott,
I also have no idea how to solve your problem. However I use Mozilla as well as Internet Explorer and whenever I have a problem on the microsoft product I use the other. In my case I find some screens will not print out through IE but do through Mozilla. It is a bit like having a backup keyboard! http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
it is free by the way.
Good luck
Keith

Hi Richard, good suggestion, and which I remembered to perform. Interstingly enough, yesterday, I had connected to an arrangaer kb buddy located in Finland who had initiated a remote webcam from his laptop PC to me. He gave me a IE explorer address to enter, and after doing this, he appeared on my PC screen, coming from the camera on his bluetooth cell phone to his laptop PC, and then to my PC here in California. During that connection, I noticed that some 'remote keyboard' settings window (automatically?) popped up on my PC screen, and then when I pressed my keys on my PC, it would show cap letters, even though my caps lock was off. I was able to close the window, and the problem seem to resolve itself. I'm wondering now if that webcast via IE somehow corrputed something with webpage loading now. Man this is all so complicated. It seems like you try anything new, and sh!t happens. Though this problem is only a minor annoyance currently, I sure hope it can be fixed.

Scott

Scott , try a previous restore point and see if it solves your problem..You may still have a trojan hidden in your system files.
Save your current restore point first..that way you can revert back to the current point if the procedure doesn't help..

Could it possibly be downloading Windows updates in the background and slowing things down? Windows updates usually come out on Tuesdays. But they are parcelled out a bit at a time to prevent overload. That means that both of your computers do not receive the updates at exactly the same time.

Of course, I assume that you cleared your IE cache and deleted all the files already. That can cause slowdowns if you haven't done that.

Tom G.

Scott - is your computer fixed yet?

Hi Rhumba and all, I tried rolling back my PC to an earlier date, as suggested by Fran , but even though the roll back dates are listed as available (Monday), when I actually try to initiate a roll back to those dates, when I reboot the PC, it says that date is not actually available to roll back to. I suspect it's because I performed a 'Windows Update' on Tuesday, like TomTomSF as mentioned, and you can't roll back to a date prior to a 'Windows Update'.

Interestingly enough though, the webpage loading seems to have improved 'just a little'. The annoying problem now is a 2-3 second hiccup the moment following the page load (when the status bar indicator shows as complete: indicator bar all green). At this point, the webpage hangs for 2-3 seconds, before the indicator bar finally disappears, and new loaded page is freely scrol-lable.

For example, in SZ, if I click on a link to a thread, such as This Very Thread , it will take a second or so to load (with the status bar indicator moving from empty to full (green). The new page appears, but I'm not able to scroll for another 3 seconds, and only then does the status bar finally disapear, and I'm then able to scroll up/down that page to view all the posting replies. It's like something in my PC wants to process (scan for virus' or ad-ware?) the webpage data before the new page can finally become scrol-lable. - Scott

Scott,

A couple of things you might want to check before you go crazy. Your anti-virus software may be checking and /or cleaning web pages prior to loading into your browser. Also, some pop-up blockers have been known to affect performance. Thirdly, you may be loading pages which are heavy with Javascript/java applets and your Java/Javascript settings within the browswer may have changed. Check your status bar to see if your getting Java errors.

One last thing you may want to do is clear out your temporary files, prefetch files, and your browser history. This could be causing the browser to search for cached copies of web pages you are visiting and thus taking much longer than necessary if your cache is abnormally full!

Hope some of this helps and cures your problem. Please keep us posted on your progress.

Al

Spyware?

Scott,
Open up your internet explorer, go to:
Tools ---> Internet Options ---> Programs and click on Manage Add-ons
Check carefully all the installed software add-ons for IE and remove anything that looks suspicious.
There is a posibility that you just have a "buggy" add-on installed by the sesion you had yesterday.

cheers



------------------
Yamaha PSR9000, PSR730, Korg Karma, X5D, Yamaha Tyros2 and Korg PA1X Pro on it's way

Scott:
I sorta had this problem about a month ago, I finally noticed that when any webb page was just sitting idle, The bits per sec incoming was running crazy, hold your cursor on and get a numbers count, go off for a sec and come back, if the count is going up, your probably bugged. or its downloading updates or something. My case it was trojan....Pose

Do a search for an Internet speed test site to make sure your connection is operating at proper speed.
If you have recently added or enabled a Java plug in this will also slow your connection down.
Follow the instructions that ccdmax suggested, but do it from within safe mode, as certain add ons can be hidden in normal mode.
You say the restore feature fails to work, which means it is possible that there is a virus or spy ware in the System Restore folder, if you are sure that the System Restore feature does not work correctly, then disable it, and do another virus and software scan.
You can re-enable System Restore once you are sure the computer is clean.
Hope this helps.

Bill

Thanks to everyone that replied for your suggestions. Though none of these was able to fix the page load completion delay problem I'm still having with IE 6.0. Thanks to KeithB & Mike Sutliff's recommendation, I installed Mozilla Firefox version 1.07 as my alternative web browser and (for whatever reason), the delayed page load completion problem that I've been experiencing with Internet Explorer 6 is not happening with Firefox. The problem thus appears to specific to my IE6 program.

It's my understanding that IE is integrally a part of the Windows XP OS. I look in Windows Control Panel: add/remove programs, and find no de-install icon for Internet Explorer. Must IE continue to reside on my PC even I no longer wish to use it? Is there any way to de-install Windows IE, and then re-install it again (with the Windows XP CD)?

Ok, one more important question: when I go to my website's homepage: http://scottyee.com

my music (.wma file) automatically begins playing when viewed using IE, yet when I access the same page via Mozilla Firefox 1.07, the music won't play. Is there some setting in Firefox that needs to be made for inbedded webpage music (.wma format)to play?

Thanks. - Scott

I sent Scott an email regarding this but figured y'all might find this info useful.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=206213

Still digging for the slow IE load times. First thought was spyware but he's run two different scans and they both come back clean.

-mike

Scott

As far as I know, you can not get rid of IE from your computer. And you do not want to!

There are some websites that only load properly in IE, maybe 5% of the websites, or less. But you need to keep IE to open those odd sites. Maybe your banking site, or whatever.

In fact, I recommend the Firefox extension "Open Page in IE". Once you install this extension in Firefox, it lets you right click a link and choose to open it in Internet Explorer, instead of Firefox. Very useful for those odd pages that won't load correctly in Firefox.

There are many, many excellent extensions available for Firefox. Spend some time choosing the ones that will help you the most. I like Image Zoom, Tiny URL Creator, Down Them All, Print Preview, and more.

Tom G.

Hi Mike: I went ahead and installed the following three Windows Media plug-ins, and put them into the Firefox 1.07 plug-ins folder as directed. C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins

1. npdsplay.dll

2. npwmsdrm.dll

3. npdrmv2.dll

Also, as per the instructions in the link you provided, installed the following Mozilla Active X Plug-in:
# Firefox 1.0.7: http://www.iol.ie/~locka/mozilla/mozactivex-ff-107.xpi

In addition, both the 3 Windows Media Plug-Ins & Active X Plug-in were confirmed to be working properly in FireFox 1.07 when I ran the following tests:

Windows Media Plug-in Test

ActiveX Plug-in Test

After performing the above, and returning to my website hompage again using Firefox 1.07, my .wma song file still does not automatically play, yet when I load the same page using IE6, it automatically plays fine. I'm perplexed. Any more ideas anyone?

I'm hoping others here with Firefox 1.07 browser installed will please try linking to my website homepage, http://scottyee.com
and report back if my music (As Long As I'm Singing) automatically plays or not. Thanks. - Scott

[This message has been edited by Scottyee (edited 10-25-2005).]

Hello Scott
Due to IE being constantly targeted by hackers and virus writers, security updates are added to IE, and they can slow the browser down, however with the next security update that comes along it normally goes back to full speed.
If you have Java running then this can also slow the browser down.
IE is integral to Windows but if you are using XP then you can go to the Set Program Access and Defaults on the Start Menu, or System tools and set Firefox as Default.
IE is a fully featured browser and so comes with everything as standard, (Including the Kitchen Sink) were as Firefox is a basic browser to which you add only the items you require, and so it is much faster, unfortunately due to its popularity it has now become the target for hackers and virus writers, (Used to be only IE that was targeted) so make sure you keep it and your security updated.
Consider also the Opera Browser http://www.opera.com/, which I find superior to Firefox, and would be the browser I would use if IE did not exist.
Food for thought.

Bill