Weird internet related problems

shaxper · Post by **shaxper** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:02 pm

Hey guys,

I've been having some issues with my internet for a while now. I'm using Win 98 SE, and the problems began when I noticed that I couldn't access hlj anymore for some odd reason. No other pages that I'm aware of; just hlj. Soon after, I began to have trouble accessing the internet. After startup, I could only get my ethernet to work by opening my internet portal and then logging on to Kazaa Lite Ressurection. After a while, even this become unpredicatable, taking a very long time to connect, and sometimes not connecting at all. Even once I was connected, the computer would often freeze or crash. I tried upgrading to the latest version of Internet Explorer and running all available windows updates. I even purchased Registry Mechanic to fix problems with my registry. Still, the freezing and other problems had gotten much worse, as of late.

I finally got sick of the whole thing, uninstalled Kazaa lite, reinstalled windows, and started using Mozilla Firefox. Now it takes roughly two minutes to actually establish an internet connection after opening my internet portal without Kazaa, freezing is more infrequent and usually doesn't result in crashing, and I still can't access hlj. Mozilla Firefox, itself, seems to freeze for a good 30 seconds or more before starting.

I've used Registry Mechanic to "fix" my registry several times and, like I said, I've reinstalled windows too. Any idea what the problem is?

Edit: I forgot to mention that another frequent problem is that the computer will "hiccup," pausing for a long time in the midst of my writing long passages (nothing shows for a long time, and then all the new text appears at once), and worse yet, my mouse cursor will often become very slow, skip around, or just start moving to random places all over the screen. Other times, it disappears entirely, still leaving me full control of the keyboard, but with no mouse. Not sure if this is internet related or not.

Hound · Post by **Hound** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:05 pm

I had a similar problem and the only way I could fix it was to make sure i had the latest windows updates, assuming its XP.

shaxper · Post by **shaxper** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:07 pm

Sorry. Should have clarified this is Windows 98, second edition.

Post by **Kaylee** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:10 pm

It sounds like you have something bad on your system. First of all avoid things like online registry fixers like the plague, most of them are out to put at best trackers into your system reg files.

Secondly I'd also avoid things like Kazaa unless you're using a good firewall and antivirus program. Make sure you have at least the freebie AVG and Outpost installed.

shaxper · Post by **shaxper** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:16 pm

Thanks Karl. Yeah, I had my concerns about Registry Mechanic, but I was desperate for help.

As for anti-virus and firewall, I'm using up to date McAfee software for both. The system appears to be clear of worms and viruses. I'm also using Ad-Aware regularly.

Tired Tracks · Post by **Tired Tracks** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:17 pm

Ad-aware is good, but you may want to look into 'Spybot -Search and destroy' as well

Post by **Kaylee** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:31 pm

Use task manager and make sure you can identify all the processes running as friendly, it might help yu find the problem.

shaxper · Post by **shaxper** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:59 pm

Karl Lynch wrote:Use task manager and make sure you can identify all the processes running as friendly, it might help yu find the problem.

Yes, I've done that, and meddled with my startup options in msconfig as well. Everything looks right, except that I don't know what Rundle32 is, nor why it's running twice. Maybe that's the problem?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:03 pm

rundll32.exe would be the 32-bit runtime library, allowing programs compiled for 32-bit processors to run. There's a similar runtime library that allows 16-bit programs to run, but it's not called anything sensible like rundll16.exe, IIRC.

If nothing you've tried so far has done the trick, I'd probably be inclined to think that it's a hardware issue, whether it be recently installed hardware, existing hardware that's no longer functioning or even hardware that's become intermittently connected to the system following a knock (accidental kick to the case, etc.).

shaxper · Post by **shaxper** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 1:02 am

Ugh. That sounds like bad news. I tried to install a wireless ethernet card a long time back that wasn't connecting correctly. I removed it and may have damaged the port. Nothing is connected to that port now. Could that be affecting things?

Should I be worried about the duplicate Rundle32 issue?

Much thanks.