All Downloads Freeze

My kids have been on my computer and now, whenever I try to download something (via an http link through IE or Firefox), it hangs at any download greater than about 1 MB. It's not an issue with very small files, but anything of any significant size, and the download will not complete. I don't get any error messages, but the download window just stays stuck at a percentage. It's not locked up or anything. The file transfer graphics are going as usual but the download speed, percentage, etc is not showing any progression. I've run all my anti-virus anti-malware and nothing has changed. I have no trouble downloading those large files when I boot into safe mode. I have WinXP SP2 running on a Dell XPS 400 Pentium D 300GHz, 2GB RAM, Motorola Cable Modem with d-Link DIR-625 router. As I said it happens with IE and Firefox and only on this computer. Let me know what other info you need. Thanks

 

It may be time for some routine PC maintenance (link: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=106650)... you may want to take a look at your startup menu also (msconfig) and see if anything listed jumps out at you; you may also have a Windows service that isn't running quite right. Try Dial-A-Fix (link: http://www.majorgeeks.com/Dial-a-fix_d4899.html) Check all the boxes in the 'Registration Center' and check everything in the 'SSL' section (I might have the name wrong; it's the section directly above the Reg Center), then click 'Go'. DAF cannot possibly do any harm to your PC, so feel free to check anything/everything that you want. If you get any errors while running DAF, post 'em and we'll try to help. If you get no errors, try some downloads after it completes, and see how it goes....

hd2k

 

Did the maintenance and msconfig and ran DAF. It didn't find any errors and after a reboot I still can't download. Maybe a registry error or a services error?

 

Did you run CCleaner's "Issues" button to clean junk entries from the registry? Regardless, I'm inclined to think that it is a Windows service gone awry since it doesn't happen in safe mode. On the other hand, maybe go thru msconfig and start unchecking items, one by one, or uncheck 'em all at first and see if you can download. If so, start re-checking items 'til you lose the download ability, then you'll have the culprit. But if it's a service, all I can think of is to check the event viewer; find a time that coincides with a download that stopped responding and see if there's any error messages or warnings or anything....

hd2k

 

I've been thinkin' about your problem and researching it on the 'net, and I'm really not getting anywhere or finding any useful information. I wish I could be of more help Hopefully someone else will come along and offer some insight. You could try "LSPFix" (a free download here at MG) or one of the other internet 'fix-it' tools, but I don't think they're gonna do it. If you can remember when the problem started, maybe try a system restore to a few days before. You could run the system file checker (info below) or perform a safe 'in place' reload of Windows over the top of itself. Other than these suggestions, and the ones I posted above, I'm out of ideas.... Here's how to run the system file checker; you'll need your XP install CD: Insert the XP CD in the CD drive and click Exit when the big blue install window opens. Click Start > Run. Type 'cmd' (without the quotes; from now on, when you see a command in quotes, do NOT type the quotes unless stated otherwise) and press Enter. You should now be in a black command prompt window with white lettering. Type 'sfc /purgecache' and press Enter. There's a space between the 'sfc' and the '/'. Let that do its thing, it can up to 10 or 15 minutes (usually ALOT quicker). When it's done, type 'sfc /scannow' (again with the space between the 'sfc' and the '/'). Let that do its thing. This can take up to (and over) an hour. Be patient. You may get prompts saying you need to insert your XP CD; just keep clicking Retry... when it's finally all done, try a download. If it still does the same thing, reboot and try again. If it STILL does the same thing, a safe reload may be your only option (or a clean install after backing up all your personal stuff like pics, docs, music, etc.)..... good luck, and please post your results, or lack of results as the case may be

hd2k

 

I'll try your ideas because I'm really trying to avoid a reinstall. The strange thing is if I try to restore to an earlier point it fails every time. It simply says "restore failed." I have about 15 restore points and none of them work. I'll let you know how things go. Thanks.

 

This is really a piggyback on the thread. I am having a similar problem. I am on XP Media Center on a box with 2 gig of memory, AMD dual core 4200+. I am on the net via this box because small interactions work. I first noticed my problem when trying to run www.speedtest.net which I had run many times before. The test would proceed awhile, for different percentages at different times and then freeze. Using my home site of www.comcast.net I try to watch their "fan" videos, and they will partially load and then freeze. My wife's machine on the same router plays them fine. My problems occur in IE7 and in Firefox. In addition, the problem occurs while downloading email with Thunderbird. I am running the paid version of ZoneLabs suite, both antivirus, antispyware, and firewall. I have previously run CA's product, and Norton's product. Further, when Apple's iTunes tries to download its update, it hangs. I can tell when things hang because the ZA icon quits showing red and green bars for traffic though the little computers both are blue. Now for the interesting thing...I have started running NetMagic since this problem began and NetMagic will run its internet speed test without difficulty. I ran a download of a program update for Nikon's CaptureNX program which was large. I suspect so of these are using a piece of the TCP stack in a way the others aren't. I have just followed the suggestion in this thread and downloaded and ran "dial-a-fix" with no effect. I have run CCleaner, Registry Cleaner, and Registry Booster 2. While they all found different little things to complain about, none helped. I used a program called TCPOptimizer which changed the TCP settings and seemed to help but now I am not sure. I have cleaned out the Temp files. I have not yet fallen back to IE 6 but since the problem occurs in iTunes and Firefox, I don't feel like falling back should be the right answer. I thought if I told you all this extra information, and since my system is different from hers but with similar symptoms, someone would go "ah ha". Anyone???

 

I'm having a download problem with Firefox as well.

Nothing comes up when I do the right-click thing.

No window or anything.

Help?