freezing and slugish

hello to all. it seems my problem belongs in this software section.

i'm really feeling sad at the moment about my pc. i hope i can find some help.

my bullet points;

1) computer freezing up

2) extremely slow internet

i will try and give as much information as i can but if i miss something, please forgive me.

1) computer freezing up

i don't really know what to say here. this seems to happen at random intervals. the mouse pointer continues to be active but, the rest of the operating system/software is frozen. the only way out of this is by hard reset of the pc (4 second press and hold of the power button)

i usually have my browser open, vlc media player, some explorer windows, the usual. what i mean to say is that it doesn't seem to happen with any specific application (although i must admit, my browser is usually the first thing i open.)

2) extremely slow internet

this happens in waves but over the last week, it seems now to be permanent.

i can not stream video from you tube or any other streaming media source. bbc, sky, vimeo e.t.c.

i have noticed that my firewall reports an initial good connection (around 150~200kbps typically from you tube). after a few seconds, the flow drops to between 5~30kbps. this is the case with anything transferring through the browser... streaming media/file downloads, any data transfer really.

i tried downloading a popular torrent file to test my connection and that also has a slow connection/transfer rate (usually 700~1500kbps down to 50~200kbps)

i also tried a live sopcast stream but, the stream is constantly dropping out, rendering the broadcast un-viewable.

in the past, my connection was able to stream you tube and a like.

something else i noted; the task manager peeks out under the network utilization at 99% usage, and the link speed drops to 1mbps, even though the actual traffic is minimal.

i can browse/load web pages as normal but any 'heavy' data transfer results in this 99% peek out.

it makes me feel like my connection is being 'capped/limited' by something?


ok so i think that is as much information as i can think of.

my pc is running windows xp home (sp3)

my browser is firefox 3.5.3

is there an application that i could use that gathers more information about my pc specifications so as to help with the trouble shooting?

thanks for reading my boring post!

 

Greetings, dave groona...

What's the make and model # of your machine (please include any Service Tag #s)?

Also, please download and run Speccy, a free system information tool.

When the scan completes, click 'File', 'Save as Text file', name the report, and save to an easily found location, such as your Desktop.

Be advised: the report will display your IP Address and Windows Product Key. You may delete this information if you so wish.

Then attach that file to your next post per these instructions: HOW TO: Attach Items To Your Post.

*********

Also, have you tried booting into Safe Mode w/Networking? If there is a noticeable difference in speed while in Safe Mode, then it's likely that some 3rd-party program is the culprit...

Have you tried another browser for troubleshooting purposes? Rebooted both your computer and your modem/router/gateway to see if that changes your symptoms?

 

blooming heck then! that is a cracking app.

i have attached the text file.

 

no

yes, internet explorer, firefox v5 and chrome with no change.

yes, again no change.

 

Ok, try the Safe Mode, see what kind of changes you can come up with...

Right off the bat, the first thing that jumps at me from the Speccy report is the lack of hard drive space on your C: drive - you're down to 5% free space...you might consider doing something about that asap...

 

Also - am I correct in reading that you are not running any antivirus software, just the Sygate firewall?

 

just removed some big files (30GB).

rebooting now in safe mode.

ah yeah, i deleted the ip stuff from that text by the way. is that bad? as in, is it needed?

 

yes, no AV just the firewall

 

i tried streaming a you tube clip in safe mode. the playback hasn't changed.

i do run regular trend micro house call scans. no threats have been found yet.

 

Editing the IP info is fine...

******

You might try the DPC Latency Checker (instructions for usage are on that page) - the tool might give some insight about what might be causing your delays...

You might also consider giving a call to your ISP - there could very well be some bandwidth throttling going on...

 

due to the 'random' bandwidth fluctuations, i wouldn't have thought it was the ISP. last week it was fine. in fact, it was fine for about a year. then these sudden 'caps' started to happen (about 2 months ago)

it's a shared connection across 4 flats (wifi).

1 thing i was thinking is that 1 of the tenants is pc sabe, and has somehow capped the other 3 users connection? is that even possible?

 

Yeah, if they're random, then the slowdowns shouldn't be throttling, I wouldn't think...

As far as one user capping the others, I guess it's possible if that user had access to the modem/router settings and knew about manipulating MAC addresses, etc. I'm not a Network guy, though - I wouldn't know where to look for something like that, or what to do about it...

Speaking of network - make sure your Internet Properties are defaulted, clean out any temp. internet file caches. You might consider grabbing CCleaner, running at least the cleaner portion.