Solved: Applications won't load

[chrismc]

Hi,

if you can't help with this woudl you be able to recommend another forum that I could go to please?

OS - Win XP Pro SP2
IE6
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 3 Stepping 4 GenuineIntel ~2992 Mhz
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
AV - Norton
Firewall - Zonealarm
Connection - broadband(ADSL)/USB alcatel modem
ISP Wanadoo

For some time I've been having a strange problem with my PC. Everything runs really well until I make a connection to the internet. Quite often the PC will start to misbehave within a minute (or less). It's almost as though the PC freezes but looking around I find that existing loaded applications generally continue to run ok until they try to load more components. Attempting to start new applications results in some disk activity and then nothing happens. After anything from a few minutes to about 10 minutes there will be a sudden flurry of disk activity and all the applications that I have tried to start up will burst into life and any applications that stopped responding mid-task suddenly resume. Sometimes pulling out the USB modem while things are stuck will clear the problem.

The problem has been with me for a while and I have ensured that my applications and OS are all kept fully updated but that hasn't helped.

Help.

Chris

[Killian]

Hi Chris and welcome to VBAX

Well it's not exactly VBA question, but I'm sure you'll get a few suggestions.

Here's my 2p...
The problem only happens when you connect to the internet and stops when you disconnect so I would suggest two potential tests:

1) Do a full virus scan, and if the Norton AV doesn't specifically have a malware/adware scan, download something like AdAware (http://www.lavasoft.de - it's free!) to do the job. This is just to make sure there's nothing there that shouldn't be.

2) It sounds like the firewall settings are a more likely source of the problem.
If you're using a 3rd party firewall like ZoneAlarm, you should disable the Windows firewall since having them both running will cause problems. If you already have, try quitting ZoneAlarm and enabling the Windows firewall and then connect - if you don't have the same issues then you'll know that you need to configure ZoneAlarm correctly (most likely by allowing the appropriate apps to access the net). First, set the internet security level to medium and then go to Program Control>Programs and make sure the running apps that need to have access to the net do. (I hope I remebered this correctly, its been a while since I used it...)

The key to diagnosing problems like this is by a process of elimination to try to minimize the potential sources, so you should also close all apps/processes you don't need running before you start

Hope thats some help

[chrismc]

Thanks for taking an interest Killian.

1) Norton AV, AdAware and Pest Patrol come up with nothing.
2) Problem occurs when Zone Alarm is not running. Problem occurs when the only application I have loaded is the modem connection. I have upgraded the modem software - faster connecting but still a problem. I will try stopping some background processes prior to connecting in case that helps.

Any other ideas gratefully received.

Chris

[mvidas]

I agree with Killian saying that you will get some good answers here, including his above. And though I don't necessarily like referring people to other forums (as its great to have you here!), the site experts-exchange is more of a general IT forum, that you'd probably get the answers you need there. They have a number of subforums, for your problem you may want to choose one of these three:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/ - General Hardware
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Oper...Systems/WinXP/ - Windows XP
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Networking/ - Networking

You'd probably know best which of those 3 pertains most to your problem. Again, thanks for stopping here, remember us if you're having a vba/vb problem!

Matt

[chrismc]

Thanks for the pointers.

I have already used some fo the information in the forums to help me with VBA challenges I've had so I'll certainly be back.

Chris

[chrismc]

I put in a new wireless broadband router and set up all the permissions and the problems evaporated.

[Killian]

Thanks for the update, Chris

Funnily enough, since the original post, I switched ISPs and was provided with a free Alcatel DSL modem (two, in fact) and discovered it was possibly the worst piece of hardware I've ever owned - poor connection speeds and an annoying habit of losing the connection while fooling Windoze into thinking everything was fine, which meant I had to keep unplugging it to reset the connection.
Likewise, one decent wireless router later, eveything is just fine.

So there's probably some truth in the adage "you get what you pay for" - free advice on VBA forums obviously being the exception that proves the rule

[EdCompSci]

[QUOTE=Killian]Hi Chris and welcome to VBAX

you should disable the Windows firewall since having them both running will cause problems.

Can you clue me in to how to do this? I'll look at Windows help when I get a chance, but since I'm thinking of it now and I'm at work?



http://www.edwardtisdale.com

[chrismc]

Look in Security Center or go via Control Panel, Windows Firewall.

Chris