Strange internet speed problem - help!

[Jed Shields]

Hi guys,

my wifes internet connection is behaving strangely. She's running a Gigabyte 78G motherboard with a Athlon 4450e CPU and 2Gb ram - using Vista Ultimate. The connection is through a router and is with Virgin. It was a 4gb connection, but it seems to have been increased to 10Mb.

She can download files from the internet at around 1Meg per second and transfer across the network at 14Meg per second, so the network seems fine. The problem comes when surfing as it takes an absolute age to load pages. It even has to catch up when she's typing in text into search engines etc. I have no trouble on my system.

Any ideas?

Cheers,

Jed.

 

[tolien]

Typing in a search box has nothing to do with the internet, so it sounds like there's some issue with the browser on her machine.

 

[Jed Shields]

That's what I figured. Any suggestions? Corrupt browser?

Edit - I've just run 3DMark06 and am getting a score of 1150. Does this seem right? I'm trying to get an idea if the PC is running okay.

 

[tolien]

Look at task manager? Generally and when you're typing in the box.
Trying another browser might be an idea too.

 

[Mattus]

Which browser? Sounds like a dodgy extension/plugin/toolbar to me.

 

[Jed Shields]

Just the standard Vista one. There's also a Google toolbar ...

Should I try a different browser? Any suggestions?

How do I reinstall the Vista one?

What about the 3dMark06 score - does that look right?

 

[uv]

What about the 3dMark06 score - does that look right?

that depends.. what graphics hardware does the machine have?

 

[beano]

Should I try a different browser? Any suggestions?

Try Firefox. http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/

And tell her to stay away from toolbars, they are produced by satan, and just using them will guarantee her a one way ticket to hell!!!

 

[Mattus]

And tell her to stay away from toolbars, they are produced by satan, and just using them will guarantee her a one way ticket to hell!!!

That's generally true, but I've always found the Google one to be OK. You could try disabling it all the same.

Alternative browsers: try Firefox 3 and Opera 9.5.

 

[Jed Shields]

that depends.. what graphics hardware does the machine have?

It's onboard (Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H), so i'm not expecting miracles.

Anyway, turns out that it's Internet Explorer playing up. I've installed Firefox and it flies.

How do I reinstall Internet Explorer?

 

[LeperousDust]

Just avoid internet explorer

 

[RobH]

It happens on mine, IE crawls to a halt very frequently for no reason and I'm running with 4GB RAM and an 8800 GTS, still haven't figured out the problem, could be something like the Flash plugin.

 

[Mattus]

It's onboard (Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H), so i'm not expecting miracles.

Anyway, turns out that it's Internet Explorer playing up. I've installed Firefox and it flies.

How do I reinstall Internet Explorer?

You can't really - it's built in to Windows. I'd be surprised if it's IE itself playing up, though - more likely to be a plugin you have installed. Open IE and go to Tools > Manage Add-ons, and post back with which add-ons you have loaded.

 

[willhub]

Pretty good score in 3DMark06 for onboard graphics LOL

 

[Jed Shields]

Pretty good score in 3DMark06 for onboard graphics LOL

Well, the setup is just for my wife who uses the PC for surfing and general MS Office stuff ... so it seems to be okay. However, it's also perfect for HTPC duties, so I'll be buying the kit again soon when I set up a HTPC for my living room

The only thing that threw me about the score was that mine is 10x the size at 11500! Although I'm running a Q6600, 4Gb Ram and an 8800GTS

IE - I'll check what plug ins have been added and strip it back down to see if that makes any difference ...