First, I sincerely hope everyone is well & healthy. Haven't been around these parts for a while since life has taken me in a different, less desireable direction. When house is sold next year & I can breathe again, I assure you I will be back because this is one of the best computer tech boards I've found to learn from. Me Alan ... & his avatar! Hi, Alan!
Anyway, my post is long-winded, but it was what I posted on the QVC forum so, understandably, it's alot easier to just copy & paste my 2 posts.

QVC Forum Post #1:
I've been having a SEVERE website loading problem for the past 1-1/2 weeks, specifically a horror when it comes to loading the item pages for the past week. It's taking as much as 3 minutes to load a page. It will load 1/3 of the way, reload itself 1/2 way &, if I'm lucky, reload itself to include the reviews - which naturally is what I'm always looking for. When it just won't load down to the reviews, I'll attempt to refresh the page to get the reviews. Sometime they come, sometimes they don't, but every push of Refresh takes 3 minutes, too.

Mostly, I do get the dialogue boxes the addy can't load. Once, a few days ago, I got a dialogue box saying that the facebook plug-in was unable to load. Now, I don't have this plug-in add-on in IE, however, as all qvc.com cookies & pop-ups are allowed via my IS & Kaspersky Security settings, I can only assume that the facebook plug-in piggy-backs through qvc.com. It began happening not too long after the Q addi all the options on the item pages of sending reviews to twitter, facebook & such; in particular, the only near analogy I can make, is when that box of user ratings showed up in the lower right -- I use a 800 x 600 font so this box is 3/4-off the screen & I can't read it anyway; reason this box should be sized significantly smaller for use using larger screens.

As I'm still using IE6 which is stating to be completely unsupported at all the major websites like youtube & the like, I'm gonna be upgrading to IE7 this week so, hopefully (praying), that this will resolve my issue. If it's a corrupted code or link, then, the problem should resolve itself through upgrading. Gotta do something to fix this as need to be quick-on-the-draw for the CIJ show. Naturally, as life goes, this BS is happening only on this, my most important website!

BWT, if the any webbie has any idea as to what, specifically, is causing this problem & how to resolve it (besides updated my browser & hoping for the best), PLEASE do contact me via my profile email addy.

Thank you.

Edited to add: Forgot to mention, that this is only when loading the individual item pages & not when moving around the website or community; although, these parts of the website are on the molassey-slow side for me.



QVC Forum Post #2 in reply to poster who asked why I never upgraded to IE7:
Didn't upgrade because the hinge on the chassis of my notebook broke (wanted 1/2 of what I paid for the notebook to put in a new chassis -- new notebook hinge design much improved) & had to resort to my circa 2003 computer. At that time hyperthreading & DDR were 1 month old & all the tech experts were skeptical, but I had waited 2 years to get a new computer & couldn't wait any longer for the verdict, so I got a computer w/o hyperthreading & 1/2GB 1066 Ram -- at that time 1066 Ram was the creme-de-le-creme. Well, to update 1066 parity ram today is $249 a gig. Much too expensive (& foolish) to put in an old computer. When house is sold next year, will get newest notebook of my dreams. So for now, I'm stuck. Naturally, didn't upgrade to IE7 or Firefox (computer boards say FF is a memory hog) due to limited ram; left well enough alone. Now that I am having this issue in the past week or so (which I suspect has to be with a damaged/corrupted code which with upgrading I'm praying will be over-written), I have no choice. Well, I've really been getting to this point of having no choice over the past 2 months when youtube no longer supports my browser & I can't get into cinemasecrets.com w/o updating. This happened so I'm now forced to take the plunge no matter what the outcome.

I'm gonna download Opera which is less memory intensive before I update to IE so I have a browser backup to at least get on the internet with should IE7 install go awry. Don't want to be missing CIJ!

My IS is customized nicely & I delete my cookies & temp files everyday. My loading & running processes are pared down to only those which are absolutely necessary.

So, that's the whole story. The worse case scenario is that the to-be-attempted browser upgrade fails miserably & I won't have a choice but to to pick up a refurbished desktop at either buy.com or woot for $300 until the house is sold. Hopefully not, as it would be a darn shame for my pocketbook to have spend $300 just to have something substandard to hold me over for just a year. But what are ya gonna do if it comes to that.

In the interim, should any of you guys have any words of wisdom for me, lmk. I'm installing my new Kaspersky IS 2010, updating all my spyware programs that I run periodically like Spybot, Adware, etc., defragging, backing up & the like. Then, I'll be ready to download Opera to so at least (I hope!) I have a working browser if the IE7 install fails. If any of you guys know of any other browser that's low memory usage, lmk. Now, when I do download the new or upgraded browsers should I have my Kaspersky disabled? Also, being that my specs are low, should I actually be upgrading to KIS 2010 or just for the year add the new license # to my existing, older program of their's; I believe circa 2008, maybe 2009?

So for now, I'm gonna get busy readying my computer for this & start & only hope that it doesn't end up like most of the things in my life have been going over the past several years ... To quote a new internet friend, "... if something can go wrong it will, and if it can't, it will anyway!"

Thank you!

Your computer is most likely severely infected with malware. I strongly recommend that you wipe the hard drive, re-install everything (starting with your operating system) from scratch. After that, try:

• Run Windows Update as often as necessary to get completely up-to-date.
• Create a non-Administrator account for your daily use. Never use the administrator account except for adding/removing software.
• Use Chrome for your browser. It's faster than IE, & the sandboxing will help protect you from further infections.
• Alternately, use Firefox with the NoScript plugin. Don't worry about the memory usage - try it out.
• Forget about antivirus programs. At least memory-resident ones. They're pretty much worthless, and they'll slow down your computer too much.

IE7 is a definite waste of your time. It is mandated on our machines at work, and I DESPISE it. I suffer through at least three crashes per day while trying to display simple websites.

I second garsh - while Opera isn't bad, I'd give Chrome a try just because of the sandboxing. Firefox 3 seems to be showing its age to me, at least now. Of course, then again, Firefox might work better if I didn't have half the extensions available to the Western world installed in it...

BTW, if you have a monitor and decide to go the refurb desktop route, check out the Dell outlet. I saw an Athlon II X2 240-based machine there earlier today (in the home/home office outlet store) for like $287.00 with 320gb hard drive, 64-bit Win7 Home Premium and 2GB ram. I haven't checked, but there are periodically 15% off coupons floating around.

EDIT: $243.95+tax after 15% off coupon 41WXBQTSDT93T6

Before I respond to what you posted garsh, I just wanted to post this although it may not be of any relevance. The only internet site that actually & rather consistently crashes on me (& has over a very long period of time) is yahoo.com; specifically, when I'm moving around to read the news on a site that has heavy graphics or is mm intensive. Only on rare occasion will I get a crash at any other site. Until this happened at qvc.com, other than the crashing at yahoo.com, the only other issue I had was having to reboot periodically when memory resources got too low & the computer became sluggish.

Here are the details. They are always the same:

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

I understand everything you said garsh, but can't I just try running all my anti-virus & spyware programs to alleviate the malware 1st before I have to wipe the drive. I gotta tell you, I'm not that good, & wiping the drive scares the heck out of me! I may wind up with no computer at all!

You could try to download and run a bootable rescue CD/DVD (either linux or Windows based) to scan for a virus. If you have a virus, though, it may prevent your antivirus/malware software from running if actually installed on your machine. The live CD approach wouldn't be affected.

But steltek, as far as I know, my Kaspersky is running & functioning fine. Wouldn't I know (or at least have an inclination) if my security program wasn't functioning properly?

If that is the case you very well may not have a virus or malware - it may be that your machine is simply showing its age. To be safe, I'd still do a scan with Malwarebytes or SuperAntiSpyware. You also could have something corrupted within Windows itself - a new installation of Windows can sometimes breathe new life into an older machine.

Another thing to check is Device Manager to see if you might have any bad drivers (look for an exclamation mark by the devices). You could also check the Windows system and application logs for errors.

In reply:
1st - don't think my machine is showing it's age. Although 10 years old, I have only used it for 6 of those 10 because I had the notebook, and, it's only been used for cursory use: wp, internet, outlook & the like; nothing intensive in any way: no games, multi-media, nothing.

I will check Device Manager tomorrow & if an exclamation mark presents will report back here for further instructions. Other then being familiar with Dr. Watson, please suggest what specific Windows System & application logs to check for errors.

Additionally, my planned course of action until/if someone comes along with another suggestion to change the order:

1) I have to do all the prep work 1st: clean up files; install, update & run all the anti-virus & spyware programs; make sure Windows' updates are up-to-date, run a full backup, etc. I will be sure to include the scan with Malwarebytes or SuperAntiSpyware2 you referenced above.

2) If all the above doesn't produce the desired resolution, I will come back to find out how to download and run a bootable rescue CD/DVD (either linux or Windows based) to scan for a virus.

2) If this still doesn't resolve the problem, naturally, I will have no recourse but to wipe the drive as garsh suggested. If this is the case, I will do some read-up on how to & then get back to you guys to confirm how I'm going to do it before I actually do it. I running either Win97 or 98 on this machine which I am forced to stay with because of my ram limitation (unless someone has an extra 1/2 or full gig of 1066 ram to send me. ). If I recall off-hand I will have to contact MS for new license #s for re-installation on some of their programs -- something like that.

I know what I know, but there are basic, baby things that I have never needed to do that I have the same knowledge of as an infant. I've never had to uninstall/or install a new driver in any of 3 computers (another also was 10 years old & only replaced it because technology severely passed me by -- remember back in 1993 when 16MB was the end-all & a computer sans monitor was $3300 & a Nanao monitor was $1600!). If I have to wipe this drive or when I get my new notebook, I haven't the slightest inkling on how to enable a router; don't even understand the language of a router. For a little while, I followed bargainshare's computer threads on routers & you guys sounded like you were speaking Greek! I couldn't even follow along. So when the time comes, I'll need to have you guys baby me through it, pay $40 to netgear for support or just buy a new router for that price so I'll have free support.

I envy you guys in that all this is like putting on another pot of coffee (which fortunately for me is something I can do. ) When I get a new computer next year I am going to try my darndest to learn & get up to speed -- like beginning to read all the Dummy books I can as a start. I spent 19 years being a caregiver so my knowledge pretty much ended there.

Anyway, I'll get busy & get back as needed for advice. The only thing I won't do is wipe the drive until a week from Monday. I so enjoy QVC's Xmas in July &, although the computer is moving like a snail on their website, at least, I'll have a computer for CIJ next weekend.

Thank you so much for your time & input!

Oh, & don't forget to tell me where I can find those error logs! And will I have Kaspersky running while I'm downloading Chrome or will that interfere with such an intense download?

I don't know why you call Chrome an "intense" download. It will DL the same as any file fine with your antivirus working. As for Kaspersky AV I have found so many things that go right through it as if there was no AV protection at all. So don't be lulled by a false sense of security because it is on your machine.

A ten year old machine will be showing it's age today even if you only used it once a week since you bought it. The power supply, hard drive and memory are all well past their prime. My 8 year old Dell desktop is suffering from it's age as well and is in dire need of a replacement today even though it is infection free.

Like Steltek said, the first thing you should do is run Malwarebytes and see what, if anything it finds. I would also run CCleaner on both your drives and registry before you even bother doing anything else.

Oh, no, I did a whole post & it disappeared. OK, will try again!

Thank you for your reply, Wings! I will run those programs tom. morning. I did find 2 device drivers with exclamation points in the non-plug & play category: mrtRate & SYMDTI. Now when I go back into device drivers, I can't even find the non-plug & play category again! Oiy!

As I said I'm an infant when it comes to alot of this computer stuff so I don't know any better. I thought downloading & installing a browser would be intensive (never did it) -- akin to an operating system. I also, apparently, incorrectly so, didn't consider my computer old in terms usage. I've used KIS for about 4 years now & have no complaints (like a doctor, satisfied until a mistake is made). I read the online pc mags & KIS is always top-rated. Used Symantec before but very background (processes) intensive. After uninstalling I thought my computer ran better.

Pentium 4, 2.6 GH, no hyper-threading, 512MB of 1066 Rambus, WinXP SP2

This right here is very, very important to understand. AV programs will protect against old, well-known attacks. But they will not protect against the latest attacks. The malware writers actually test to make sure that their latest stuff will work even with any of the popular AV programs installed.

Do you have the original reinstall disks? What make & model of computer is it? Reinstalling the operating system isn't that hard. I do it whenever something questionable has occurred where there is even the possibility of an infection. Just save any important files to a flash drive first.

If this is an actual description of your machine - Pentium 4, 2.6 GH, no hyper-threading, 512MB of 1066 Rambus, [b]WinXP SP2, this machine is plenty advanced enough for a modern web browser. I ran a converted Dell 400SC server as a desktop with similar specs (mine had 1GB of memory though) until it was finally retired earlier this year for a new quad-core self-build.

The 512MB of memory is the limiting factor - it is twice the minimum required to run XP, which isn't saying much. You just need to make sure you aren't running a bunch of stuff in the taskbar or at the same time - otherwise, Windows XP will have to do a lot of memory swapping to disk which will slow down your system to a crawl.

Concerning Windows logs, here is a link that tells you how to access them:

http://www.windows-help-central.com/window...-event-log.html

If you can't access the link, the short version is to right-click on My Computer, select Manage. Under System Tools, click on Event Viewer. This will display four logs, Application, Internet Explorer, Security, and System.

The Application and System logs are the ones you are interested in. Their contents are just like they are named - Application log contains information about the application programs you have been running, System log contains issues related to Windows and hardware. You can also check out the Internet Explorer log if you want.

Start by filtering the logs.

Under the System Tools heading, right-click on the System Log, select Properties. In the System Properties box, the hit the Filter tab at the top of the window. Remove the checkmarks from the event types Information and Success Audit (you only want to see what is going wrong, not what is working properly). Hit Apply. Do the same thing for the Application log. The filtering should remain in place until you remove it (there is no need to do so).

Now, when you click on the actual log on the right side of the screen, it will only display warnings and errors. In the system log, you are interested in anything that might look hardware related. You may have to do a google search for the actual error codes to see what they relate to. If you find any related to the hard drive, make sure to go to the hard drive manufacturer's website (you should be able to determine who made it in Device Manager) and download utility software to check the SMART status of the drive.

To get back to where you can access the Application log, simply left click once on the Application log under System Tools. Click on the Application log on the right side of the screen and it should appear filtered.

BTW, there are people that are more knowledgeable and more helpful than I've been lately. Everyone deserves credit

Anyway, you've received alot of good advice, but I'll add my 2 cents. Some is a repeat of what has already been suggested.

Here's what I would do to try and correct the browsing issues:
1 - Clean out old files. Delete temporary Internet files and other temporary files that collect over time. An easy way to do this, as already mentioned, is by using CCleaner. You can find it on Download.com. Be careful with it and uncheck the stuff you may want to keep. On client systems I usually just check Temporary Internet Files under the Internet Explorer section, uncheck everything under Windows Explorer and leave everything at defaults under the other 2 sections.

2 - Defragment. You can use the built in Windows defrag program. I like to use Auslogics Disk Defrag which can also be found at Download.com.

3 - Run Malwarebytes.

4 - Check to see if IE is configured to use a proxy server. Tools > Internet Options > Connections > LAN Settings. If there's a checkmark next to Use Proxy Server, uncheck it and restart IE.

5 - If things don't improve after this I would reset IE6. In IE6 click Tools > Internet Options > then the Advanced tab. There should be a reset button on the bottom of the window. Note that this will wipe out what's called BHO's (Browser Helper Objects), but they will be reinstalled as you visit web pages that need them. It will also wipe out cookies, so if you've saved usernames & passwords for websites you've visited you'll need to re-enter them the next time you visit. Any custom security settings will also be reset. Your favorites shouldn't be affected though. I've found this to be a good tool to get a non-functioning browser working again.

6 - Upgrade IE6 to IE8 or install a different web browser like Firefox or Chrome.

7 - Temporarily disable your Internet Security program and see if things improve.

FYI, my son is still using a Pentium 3 500MHz laptop. It runs Win XP with all the visual enhancements turned off. He uses firefox on it with no problems (as long as no other programs are running at the same time).

Hi guys! Happy Sunday! *Ah, Alan, I'm expanding my love list to include garsh, steltek & WingsOverVA!

I'd hate for you guys to think I drove you all nudnik & then I disappeared! ! I've been lurking at the thread off-line & working in the background like a computer in overdrive Unfortunately for you guys, I'm gonna be sticking around because I sincerely want to learn (& having been around on the internet, I'm certain that you guys are the creme-de-la-creme), but don't head for the hills yet, as I do intend to help myself 1st & not use you fellas as a crutch; only for the questions I can't find (adequate) answers to researching myself or for further clarification so I am sure I fully understand &/or I don't create any new problems for myself. Thanks, garsh, needed another new addition to my What? list -- sandboxing! And ccCleaner gave me some new ones like memory dump. Maybe you can create a new forum where I'll post & all us computer illiterates can follow along -- like Computer 101 so that you techies can isolate us & are spared us in the regular computer problem forum. I have no illusions that I will ever have any decent, knowledgeabe input to post to the computer forum, but I truly want to learn enough that I will be able to read along, understand, increase my knowledge & not have to bother anyone.

Now, as to my problem: I'll re-read all your posts for a 3rd time & do everything I know to do & try your recommendations this week (&, no, garsh (lol), this doesn't entail wiping the hard drive as of yet!) right through a complete hd backup. So the following Monday, after QVC's CIJ, I'll do the last step of downloading all the WUs & then upgrade IE. Want to hold off on these last 2 incase I do lose the computer. And the very last thing I will do, since I have to move around all my documents, (I'm literally cringing right now that I have to admit my stupidity to garsh) is set myself up as non-Administrator. Yes, garsh, I knew to do this when I got the computer 7.5 years ago (I thought it was 10), but when I went from Win95 to XP Pro & saw the Administrator, All Users, Default User & my name folders with all folders & documents scattered within all these, it seemed at the time (still does) way too complicated to wrap my head around the folder hierarchy/tree(?), thus, I put everything under Administrator so it made simple sense to my brain. I still don't know understand why the folder hierarchy is structured the way it is & it still doesn't make complete sense to me, but at least I now know where to find things.

(Further specs: XP Pro, Gateway 700X, am on broadband). I use StartupMonitor.exe so that I don't have a ton of unnecessary programs running at start up unnecessarily in the background. Upon boot, I've pared my task mgr. processes down to 25. Messenger is uninstalled & yahoo chats disabled. I only allow 1st party cookies & am prompted for 3rds, delete my IE cookies & temp. files everytime I exit IE. I really do try to keep my computer clean & shielded from probs. I may not be knowledgeable, but, at least, I am conscientious.

Here's a brief update of what I've done so far & a couple of immediate questions:

I installed the most current versions & ran the following malware programs:
- Spywareblaster enabled for all sites
- Malwarebytes - clean
- SuperAntiSpyware (17 Flash Tracking Cookies/25 Tracking Cookies -- deleted)
- Spybot S&D - clean
- old & new version of Adaware. New version (don't like) found 1 url in Documents & Settings\Administrator\.... which I intentionally created many moons ago (3 TAC), but since I wasn't using it, deleted it. Old version found 42 negligibles, all being MRU files (0 TAC), left them for now.
- CWShredder - clean
- ccCleaner - deleted reservedly, as I have to research what some of the categories are (like memory dumps) so know if safe to delete.

- deleted all temp files from all computer temp folders, prefetch files & recycle bin files
- defragged
- per Alan, confirmed IE correctly not configured as proxy, reset IE defaults to get rid of add-ons & paused KIS protection to see if prob. disappeared; it didn't.
- downloaded Chrome

As far as Chrome is concerned:
Qvc.com is working with Chrome, however, I not only don't like the interface (it's so rudimentary, but I'm not complaining as it does get the job done on the Q!), it is flakey as hell, & I'm certainly not intending to become intimate with it. For me, it is not an acceptable replacement for IE.

- I click on a page link & a new page opens up as not availabe or can't locate the website although I'm already on it on the 1st page.
- Nearly impossible to open my yahoo Contacts page as I get a resolving host problem notification. Get a lot of resolving host problems, specifically on yahoo, that just loops.
- Some pages just keep trying to load indefinitely.
- Some pages just freeze -- no mouse action.
- Sometimes pic will load, sometimes I get those little square box placements. But to be fair this, may be caused by me having checked the incorrect boxes in setting's handling of java & activeX. You fellas can help me resolve this somewhere done the line.

The only thing I do like about it is, as it's working, it shows you in the lower-left corner specifically what it is doing or accessing. So for now, I'm using IE6 for everything, but using Chrome only to circumvent the QVC prob. If the IE upgrade doesn't eradicate my problem, there's always Opera & Foxfire (with NoScript plugin, garsh ) or, yes, a complete reinstall.

Things I'll do this week:
- Review all the error logs as steltek outlined. Thank you, steltek! Very grateful for the intricate details regarding logs!
- install KIS 2010 & run complete backup
- run MS AntiSpyware when updated through WU. May not be great, but, hey, it's free!

Things that if I don't get to before the IE upgrade next Tues., I will do after:
- Install already owned Spyware Doctor & Registry Mechanic -- previous versions expired. See if any big registry problems jump out at me. Hey, where's those magnifying glasses! lol!
- download & burn a bootable rescue disk.

Important remaing Questions:
1) Alan said to upgrade to IE8. Why not try IE7 first. From the little reading I've done, many were unhappy w/ 8 & went back to 7. How about I go to 7 &, then, to 8 if nec. As even I know, System Restore fails at times, so having to roll back a software update without SR sounds about as initimidating to me as wiping a hard drive. Once I did a hard drive backup & tested restore & it failed due to (header?) problems. This is the kind of luck I have!

2) Should I just install the entire XP SP3 update pkg.? What I've been doing is customizing which updates I downloaded as many don't pretain to me (like networking). This way when a lot of people have probs. with particular updates, I escape some of them because I never downloaded what isn't applicable to me.

3) Are there any computer parts salvage sites where I can pick up a 1/2 or 1 gig of dirt cheap Rambus 1066?

And on a personal note, just because:
5) "Of course, then again, Firefox might work better if I didn't have half the extensions available to the Western world installed in it..." Where do you hail from steltek?

6) For future speed-typing purposes, WingsoverVA, take your pick: Wings or WOVA?

If after all this & the IE upgrade, I still have problems then I will run the rescue disc. &, then, wipe the hard drive if I want to go this far. (Yes, garth, I do have my install discs.) Maybe I can just tough it out for a year alternating between 2 browsers until next year; now, garsh, this statement is the epitome of how scared I really am to wipe the drive. (*Hey, an idea -- I'm in NY (yes, this explains my Chatty-Cathy nature!) so Wings can fly you up here (lovely Farmingdale airport is only 3 miles away) & you can do it for me! lol! Seriously, when I do get my notebook, I'd, then, have no reservations about wiping the drive & starting a fresh; infact, I would welcome it as a learning opportunity.

If I have any questions or probs. as I go along this week, I'll definitely will post. Otherwise, I'll give you a complete update next Monday or Tuesday. Come on, you all know I'm not gonna disappear for an entire week & a half. That would be too good for all of us!

So, with the input of you guys, I got a workable plan. What more can a gal ask for?

If anyone can think of anything else I should do in the interim, just lmk!

Have a great Sunday everybody! And thank you for your help & just being here! It's definitely less frightening when my computer & I are not left totally alone to my own devices. And a huge, special thank you for replying to my posts in English as I'm not good at understanding short computer lingo responses.

ttys, Janis

Wanna laugh??? I just installed Opera & went to qvc.com & a screen appeared letting me know that this browser is not supported. Then I went to specktra.net & got the following:
"You need to install the Macromedia Flash Player plug-in to view all content on this page. Do you want to download this plug-in now?" huh? Like I have MFP installed, but I guess I have to install it separately for use with Opera?, which it didn't need to be for Chrome. Can't anything be easy! I need a reason to use the happy dance emoticon!