Delay Problem

[lrossmusic]

Anyone ever have a problem with these symptoms? (1)When you type a few words the the cursor moves several spaces then the word(s) appear all at once (2)When you click on the scroll bar there is a noticeable delay after you move the arrow and the page doesn't scroll smoothly like before. Instead it kind of leaps unevenly and some lines of text seem to stretch as they move. (3)If you try to highlight something there is this same type delay. In other words after I click and sweep to highlight a passage, there is a delay before the highlight takes effect (4)If you scroll the page using the arrow keys there is still a delay and again the words sometimes seem to stretch before they settle into place (5)So far this seems to occur only on the internet and not in Microsoft Word - especially bad at my ATT email page (I contacted the people at ATT but they directed me to Dell Support which has thus far been unsuccessful in solving this annoying problem) So far I have run a virus check and removed the one virus that was detected but the computer still will not function properly. I was also directed by Dell to run a spyware scan which I have successfully completed. After hours on hold on the phone with tech support I am very frustrated to say the least. I have never had this type problem before so I guess this is my initiation into the 'dark side' of the wonderful world of computers. :) Would appreciate any help, clues, or references. Thanks

[rog951]

Hey Lincoln, What kind of computer and operating system are you using? It sounds kinda like symptoms I experienced once when I had too many devices chained on my USB bus. The culprit turned out to be my Tascam US-428 control surface. A new driver fixed it for me. Your situation definitely seems like some sort of resource problem, whether it be CPU, RAM or one of the data busses getting choked. Did you install any new hardware or software recently? If so, that might've cause a conflict. The fact that you found a virus is kinda scary too. That certainly could be causing the problem...those things can be tricky. Anyway, I've gotta run and spend an evening with my wife's annoying friends :rolleyes: but I'll think about it and see if I can come up with anything. I'm sure somebody around here will hook you up! Good luck!

[Rim]

Yeah, let us know what OS you're running and we can be more specific. It sounds to me that there's something running in the background that is hogging up your resources. Depending on your OS, you may be able to find out what it is fairly easy. The app running in the background may be good (antivirus scan, hard disk defragging, etc) or bad (virus, trojan, spyware, etc). If you can, open Task Manager and look at your CPU usage - if it frequently goes to 100% or even stays there most of the time, then there is most likely an app that's hogging in. Since you're not experiencing a problem with Word but it seems with Internet-related apps, it also could mean the app that may be causing the problem is hogging your Internet connection as well.

[lrossmusic]

Many thanks Rog and Rim. This is by far the most challenging problem I've run into so far. Anyway we have a Dell computer (model Dimension L500c) The OS is Windows 98 Second Edition. The last tech guy seemed to determine that on sites with a lot of pictures and graphics the delay problem was most pronounced. That makes sense now that you both have made me aware that something is draining the computers power therefore making it even slower when a page has a lot of images (like CNN.com) instead of those with mostly text (like google.com) The computer WAS working fine until I encountered the virus on Sept. 29. However even after the virus was detected and removed we haven't been able to get back to normal. Actually I believe I can pinpoint when we got infected and where it came from. I clicked on a link to Mar's (our co-boardsman from Trinidad) homepage. I have visited Mar's homepage before with no problem but this time a bunch of pop-ups started to appear very rapidly. I couldn't even close them as fast as they were coming and they were porno type ads. Eventually I got rid of them but I believe that's when our problems started. Later my wife who knows DOS was able to find the exact time the virus got on the hard drive (Sept 29). We were able to find the name and the path of the virus from the virus scan program we downloaded from Symantic. Dell support directed us to Symantic and to Spybot for getting rid of spyware. As I mentioned we successfully ran both programs but our problem remains. I haven't contacted Mars yet but I will once I get a handle on this thing and am more sure of what's going on. I'm thinking someone has probably hacked his site.

[Super 8]

Try deleting your internet temp files and cookies. It may be that you have a ton of undetected spyware bogging down your system. Run a scandisk and a defrag too -can't hurt, might help. You may also need to do a reinstall of Win98se to get rid of the problem. These are just my suggestions, but it doesn't sound hardware related. If the problem happened after the events you described, then it's pretty obvious what caused it. Good luck! I know how big a pain this stuff can be.

[lrossmusic]

[quote] [/quote][b]Good luck! I know how big a pain this stuff can be.[/b] You can say that again! Thanks Super 8. I have tried all that you mentioned save re-installing Windows 98se. I had no idea troubleshooting a computer problem could be so difficult. After the shock of mlti hour waits to talk with a tech person it's a bit frustrating to finally reach someone who is difficult to understand because English is their second language. I see why some have opted to just throw the whole computer out of the window. :D

[lrossmusic]

Whoopi !!!!!!! I think my problem has been solved. Thanks Rog, Rim and Super 8 for helping me to not give up because I was almost ready to throw our computer out of the window for real. I told my wife I was going to throw the computer, Windows 98 and all out of my dining room window before she got home from work. She said I would have to foot the bill for a new one so that's when I came on the boards for some help and you guys saved me. :D What eventually resolved my problem was a program called ADAWARE which I downloaded for free from download.com just like the SPYBOT program I had tried earlier. It appears that ADAWARE got some spyware that SPYBOT had missed. I have been working to solve this problem since last Monday and it really kicked my ass. (Trombone players don't give up easily though. In fact the trombone is still kicking my ass after all these years. I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment as far as that's concerned.) :D Anyway I'm sure I have been through a dozen or so tech people from AT&T and Dell. I learned that to avoid long waits on the phone with Dell it was better to call early in the morning. Finally this morning I got a young man in Texas who was a computer programer working on his master's degree in computer sciences. Like some of the other tech folks, he mentioned that my particular problem was actually beyond DELL's scope of responsibility. The 90 day extended service we had purchased did not cover pop-ups and spyware type problems. Regardless he and a few other's were willing to help me out anyway for a few moments especially since we had DSL and I could test things on line right there as we spoke on the phone. It's good to encounter some nice people form time to time and somewhat restore my faith in humanity which has been really at low tide lately. It's kind of ironic that we never had this type problem before DSL but without DSL I can't imagine how long it would have taken to get at the root of this. Anyway it was suggested that I run the ADAWARE once a week and get some kind of FIREWALL ASAP. If any of you have any suggestions and know how much this is going to cost me I would appreciate it. Are there any free downloads for FIREWALL or similar programs? (I see computer can be just like cars - they just keep costing you and costing you. ;) ) Thanks again PS Feels good to be back from computer hell and once again able to enjoy among other things the lively discussions on musicplayer. :D

[rog951]

Hey Lincoln, I was glad to wake up and see that your problem is most likely solved! :thu: Yeah, if you're using DSL, you really should use a firewall. People generally rave about Zone Alarm and I think there might even be a free version out there. I use Norton Internet Security and I've been okay so far. There will be many more knowledgeable responses than mine, I'm sure! Listen to whatever they say! :) Good luck!!!