Dear Fellow posters

I am wondering whether you can help me...

a large majority of the time when i connect to the internet with my adsl modem.. the computer freezes for like 5 minutes!!... Basically apart from doing Alt-tab and minimising active windows i cant do anything else.

if i press the start button it does nothing.. if i click on any icon on the desktop i get the hour-glass for a couple of seconds then nothing.. After 5 minutes the computer goes berzerk catching up on the frustrated clicks i have done.

I have mCafee security suite latest version and check for virus (full scan) every week or 2.

what dio you think this is?

Thank you posters for all you help in advance

Sounds to me that you probably have a large number of processes running (Programs running in the background). When you connect to the internet, those programs that check for updates all attempt to do so, generating quite a queue of events that need to be handled before the operating system regains Idle time (Idle time controls how and when events can be executed).

It sounds to me what you need to do is identify what "Essential" programs you should keep running in the background and turn the others off from bootup. You could use something like MSCONFIG through the Start > Run box to configure what starts up, also check your Startup folder either via the start button or navigating to the right folder.

You'll also find that most programs have the option of a tickbox with "Start at Startup", make sure they are unticked.

If you are unsure of programs, either google them or write a list of them and ask here

Sounds to me that you probably have a large number of processes running (Programs running in the background). When you connect to the internet, those programs that check for updates all attempt to do so, generating quite a queue of events that need to be handled before the operating system regains Idle time (Idle time controls how and when events can be executed).

It sounds to me what you need to do is identify what "Essential" programs you should keep running in the background and turn the others off from bootup. You could use something like MSCONFIG through the Start > Run box to configure what starts up, also check your Startup folder either via the start button or navigating to the right folder.

You'll also find that most programs have the option of a tickbox with "Start at Startup", make sure they are unticked.

If you are unsure of programs, either google them or write a list of them and ask here
Thank you Stryder

I have actually tried this.... and unticked a few programs however their are still quite a few i am unsure of?

what would happen if you unticked one which was dead essential??

Thank you for your help Stryder

The likelihood of any being essential is minimum. You might untick say an ATI control panel and you won't be able to quickswap resolution on your monitor, however you can still manually do it by right-clicking any empty portion of your desktop and selecting properties, you might cause something like a bluetooth dongle from loading the Rundll32.dll lib and therefore it won't function properly, however none of these changes should be critical to your OS, which means if they stop functioning and you want that functionality just reload MSCONFIG, retick the entry and reboot.

I found that XP is pretty protective of Critical Processes and if you truly want to test without adjusting any settings just use the Task Manager through CTRL-ALT-DEL and close down some of the tasks, they will only be closed down for the session you are running and will reload at reboot.

Hi Stryder.

You are a scholar and a Gent

thank you for all your help

i will be blatantly ruthless now with the unticking!!!