posted
I've had XP since 2001 but up until two weeks ago, had never encountered freezing browser-windows of the kind and extent I do now.
About two weeks ago it started, I was on a page and did something big, like reversing back to another page before the current one had loaded all its content (images, links) or right-clicked on a big link or something. Suddenly that Explorer-window freezes, I can't manipulate it or close it, I can't even press Ctrl-Alt-Del and get the System manager up. As this happens I also hear the processor fan go to max speed (Dell Dimension, variable output fan). I can however move other open windows (but not scroll or close them). After about ten minutes, the "bottleneck" seems to resolve itself and every action I tried to do now gets done at once; system manager opens, windows close, the cows moo.
This is different from the old-style freezing, which only happened if I had severely taxed the comp by eating up all the virtual RAM by, say, playing a big game for more than five hours. And that kind of freeze never resolved itself, you had no option but to reboot. Could it be because of some new fix that was released in Windows Update these last two-three months?
Has anyone else experienced this particular type of freeze? I couldn't find much by googling it. While I know it will resolve itself after about five-ten minutes every time (and this freeze happens twice a day now), most times I just pull out the cord, reinsert and boot up again.
-------------------- "I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!" Mel Gibson, X-Men
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
Well I have a "sort of freezing" sometimes when windows start where no icons or toolbar come out and then I have to restart the computer manually.
Registered: Feb 2005
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
I have two pieces of advice. One, get Firefox instead of Internet Explorer, and two, get Linux instead of Windows.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
No, I won't change braussers. And Linux can go eat a bag of hell, IIRC.
Update: It isn't a system-freeze, so much as a slow-down. If I drag a window during the thing, it moves 10-20 seconds later.
I'm pretty sure now that the problem is caused by one or two key files getting caught in a feedback loop, wrongly responded to by the computer by putting 100% of system resources into helping the aforementioned file. I suspect it is ALG.EXE, which has to do with internet handling and the firewall. If I erase ALG, will it be replicated by the system?
Does anyone have experience in how to make ALG.EXE (and other easily-disturbed files) relax when it hits?
Registered: Aug 1999
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Charles Capps
We appreciate your concern. It is noted and stupid.
Member # 9
posted
Google. *nod*
What firewall program are you using? And why are you using IE?
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I use FSecure 6.00 for security and firewall. The reason I'm sticking with IE is because I spent an evening trying out FF at a friend's comp and we spent half the time in IE anyway, as many of the sites we visited didn't work properly in FF.
That and I haven't exactly run into any major problems that would piss me off with IE yet.
Another thing, I got one of these slowdowns 30 minutes ago by just opening up "Downloaded Files" in My Documents, a folder I hadn't visited in some time. I quickly pressed ctrl-alt-del and looked at the performance meter, it was up at 100% of CPU power and stayed there for ten minutes, until I pulled the plug and booted up again.
Now will someone tell me what would make a computer take 10+ minutes to just display 17 files in a small folder? There is one hell of a bottleneck somewhere in the execution queue system. And it didn't exist a month ago. Weiiiird.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
It's a poorly-written, unsecure, and badly outdated piece of software? And maybe if IE 7 comes out before the apes take over some of those problems may be fixed, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Nim: The reason I'm sticking with IE is because I spent an evening trying out FF at a friend's comp and we spent half the time in IE anyway, as many of the sites we visited didn't work properly in FF.
Really? Give examples.
I actually have had both (Mozilla and then) Firefox and IE installed for that very reason since Windows 2000.
But the situation has vastly improved since then and I only have two sites that don't work in Firefox, proteinexplorer.org since the plugin that it uses is old enough not to recognise Firefox (and I'm too lazy to configure it manually) and Microsoft's own WindowsUpdate for the obvious reasons.
Thus, I'd be interested in examples.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
Brausser? you mean browser?? and umm... Linux can eat a bag of hell IIRC? you know IIRC means "If I Recall Correctly" right? I guess you mean IMHO...
Registered: Jul 2005
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You are wonderful. No, I said IIRC and I meant it. In any case, I possess moral authority, miss.
About the familiarities of the web-brausser, see previous answer.
As for sites that don't work properly in Firefox, many swedish university websites weren't built for both IE and Netscape (and in that extension, FF), so fontsizes and borders can get screwed up there.
One problem-site me and my friends often happen upon is for the university of S�dert�rn, http://webappo.web.sh.se/. They've said they are working on improving it, so I don't know if it works better now.
Regarding the whole "Why do you still use IE?" debate, why do people smoke or eat meat? And are the stars but small airholes in the popcorn pot that is the universe? I'll tell you this, I'll never start smoking until they put beef in the cigarettes. (True, beef-cigars already exist but I hate having sex with men). And I'll think about using FF when the bookmark system and customization features get a little more...shall we say...liberal?
dbutler1986: Debbie, welcome to the forums, for the rest of your natural life you are mine.
-------------------- "I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!" Mel Gibson, X-Men
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
(I use my bookmarks as a lazy man's RSS reader. How's that grab you?)
[The unparanthesized portion of this comment was going to be some snark about sites not displaying properly in Firefox because they disregard agreed upon coding standards, but do I really want to be that guy, I wondered?]
Re that Swedish university website: "Logga in"? Seriously?
Registered: Mar 1999
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