XP SP3 intermittently slow web viewing

I reformatted my hard drive.
Fresh install of XP home edition V 2002 SP3 a week ago.
one gig of ram
celeron 3.07Ghz CPU
running blue wire to home network ... other computers on this network do not have issues with quickly viewing web sites.
No yellow exclamation marks in device manager
Running Bit Defender
Running Steady State
I regularly test my bandwidth at 2791 kbps

Sometimes, I can view web sites at a normal rate but quite often I have to wait up to several minutes for sites to load. Including google and bleepingcomputer.com

My computer intermittently beeps and restarts.

Took out one stick of ram. no difference. Replaced it and removed the other. No difference. Still slow viewing and computer restarts intermittently.

I reconnected all connections between mother board and hard drives.

I have a very clean interior and I have a fan blowing into the box for added cooling.

This weekend, I will put in a spare (good) power supply.

I will check this thread after work.

Thank you

" My computer intermittently beeps and restarts. "

When that happens, what is logged in Event Viewer? For that matter, any critical or other errors in the system or application logs?

" I regularly test my bandwidth at 2791 kbps "

Adequate for 2, maybe 3 power users at best if everyone is simultaneously hammering the connection.

Also, what browser? If Firefox, what add-ons?

And a Celeron? What is your CPU usage during slowness?

FWIW: 1GB RAM installed...isn't exactly optimizing system capabilities for doing much of anything. You may want to use Task Manager to see how your RAM usage fluctuates during your Web episodes.

Louis

I use Chrome. I use Firefox. Each one is up-to-date. When I use one over the other, I do not see any difference with speed.

Technomutt, I will check event logger the next time my computer restarts.

Hamluis, I will verify RAM usage fluctuations in Task Manager during slow browsing.

I will update in 24 hours.

My computer stopped running and would not start during this past week. I tried to restart it by pushing the button on the computer box. No sound, no fan, no beep. I changed the power supply to Corsair TX650W. The computer started beautifully.

Hamluis: during fast or slow browsing, the RAM usage is 460 MB and my CPU usage ranges from 7% to 14%.

For what it is worth, the waiting-for gif on Chrome tab moves around in a circle really slow when 'waiting' for a web page to appear. When I click on a link and the rotating gif is going fast, a brief second later the web page appears.

Technomutt: The event logger Application tab has no errors. Security tab has no failures.

System tab had this:
Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for a transaction response from the Windows SteadyState service.

Any next steps I can run to identify what is causing my intermittent slow browsing speed?

Download SpeedTest for a quick test on your internet connection speed on that machine.
It should be above 10 or 15 for normal applications. Below that you will always have a "waiting" circle while connecting or downloading.
This is to test your download speed, and then see if there is changes when you are having your problems.

Thank You -

noknojon: hank you for your reply. I will download SpeedTest on Tuesday and watch if things change. I appreciate your interest.

My results are: Ping 71 ms; DL Speed 2.71 Mbps; and Upload 0.46 Mbps

What are you referencing with your statement "It should be above 10 or 15 for normal applications. Below that you will always have a "waiting" circle while connecting or downloading."

Hi again, Sorry I missed your reply -

"It should be above 10 or 15 for normal applications" = 10 to 15Mbps for "reasonably decent" broadband reception.

DL Speed 2.71 Mbps

Your readings show about the lowest readings for Broadband, and that will not be enough to keep constant connection.
I have just needed to upgrade my plan simply due to where I live, and I now average D/load speed of 15+ Mbps reception

This is still fairly poor (many will get over 50Mbps on downloads) but this is on the highest plan I can afford in my area

My only reply at this stage is to enter the Am I Infected Forum, or (better) to contact your Internet Provider for their response to your problem -

Thank You for posting those results -

My messily 2.7 Mbps pale in comparison to your dl speed.

I will call frontier and ask about a different package.

I will also post my issue in 'am I infected' More info to follow.

Thank you for the advice.

I reformatted my hard drive.
Fresh install of XP home edition V 2002 SP3 a week ago.
one gig of ram
celeron 3.07Ghz CPU
running blue wire to home network ... other computers on this network do not have issues with quickly viewing web sites.
No yellow exclamation marks in device manager
Running Bit Defender
Running Steady State
I regularly test my bandwidth at 2791 kbps

Sometimes, I can view web sites at a normal rate but quite often I have to wait up to several minutes for sites to load. Including google and bleepingcomputer.com

My computer intermittently beeps and restarts.

Took out one stick of ram. no difference. Replaced it and removed the other. No difference. Still slow viewing and computer restarts intermittently.

I reconnected all connections between mother board and hard drives.

I have a very clean interior and I have a fan blowing into the box for added cooling.

This weekend, I will put in a spare (good) power supply.

I will check this thread after work.

Thank you

Well, here's my take of the subject for what it's worth.

If you've just reinstalled the OS, it's highly unlikely that your system is infected with malware.

You say that your system 'intermittently beeps'. How many beeps exactly and what is the sequence? By sequence, I mean something like one short beep and two long, or two short beeps etc. Beeps of this nature are BIOS (warning) codes and there is a reference guide for each of them which will tell you what the problem is.

Do you know which BIOS you have? Is it an Award BIOS for example, or Phoenix, or another one? BIOS beep codes differ to some extent for each of them.

Also, you say you're running Bit Defender. Practically all AV these days incorporate various options to perform additional scans by default. Check the Bit Defender settings to see if there are any web monitoring options in play which scan every page you visit for malware thereby preventing them from loading until considered 'safe'.

Which browser do you use? If you use Firefox, try running it is Safe Mode. Here's the support article which explains how: Firefox Safe Mode If sites load quickly in Safe Mode, then one of your add-ons is the culprit and you'll need to disable all of them and then re-enable them one by one until the problem recurs. Then you'll know which one it is which is causing the problem.

Hope this helps.

System tab had this:
Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for a transaction response from the Windows SteadyState service.
Any next steps I can run to identify what is causing my intermittent slow browsing speed?

SteadyState uses heavy disc traffic depending on how it is configured. How and why are you using it?

Having said that this timeout points to a possible bus/disk access error - are there any warnings at all with regards to the hardware related to the bus or disk?

Browsing in itself can be very disk intensive too, depending on your settings.

Are you prepared and able to try and run without SteadyState?
Secondly: clear current browser cache and browse with minimal cache storage for a while

When you are browsing and the system gets in this wait state how long do you have to wait and are there sounds from the drive? While you are waiting can you see packet traffic over the router? (leds).

If you can see no traffic the block is local.

Xircal: One beep and the computer would restart. I have not had this problem for a while. I don't know how it was resolve, but I thought it was associated to my slow web browsing. I am able to use Chrome and Firefox. I will try Firefox in safe mode, but I just installed the bare-bones Chrome and I still got the wait-state.
Tsh00ter: I am using Steady State to protect my computer from malware and I have the ability to try a program and uninstall it without loose ends in the registry. I can run w/o it... I will also clear current browser cache and reduce the cache storage. Lastly, I will check the router ... it is on another floor.
I will follow up this weekend. Thank you

Xircal: One beep and the computer would restart.

You'll hear a single beep when the system reboots (or boots from a cold start) to indicate that POST is functioning correctly in the BIOS.

If you're using Firefox, install Adblock Plus and then subscribe to "Easylist" (you'll see it during the installation). This will prevent the browser from having to fetch ads from various servers scattered around the web so that pages load faster. Also, subscribe to "Malware Domains" after you install Adblock Plus. You'll find it at the foot of this page: https://adblockplus.org/en/subscriptions That'll afford you some protection against inadvertently landing on a malware infested site.

TCP/IP may be damaged or corrupted. You can reset it by opening a command prompt, then typing: netsh winsock reset and hit Enter. Reboot to complete the reset.