BleepingComputer.com: Computer is slow and strains when going to a new webpage

Hello friends,

Recently my computer has began to strain when I go from website to website or when I hit the back button. I hear a loud, strained humming sound and it's taking five to six seconds to load pages. I've ran scans and there aren't any viruses.

My computer is normally very fast. This is a recent problem. My comp is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ 2.19 GHz with 896 MB of RAM. I've has this PC for about three years.

I use CCleaner once a week.

I've used Scandisk to check for errors and did a defrag the other day. That seemed to help for a few minutes.

When I'm offline everything is fine and I have no problems with sluggishness. It's only online when I go from one page to another.

Any ideas?

This post has been edited by Bleedo: 10 April 2010 - 11:02 PM

Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287 (or http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic28744.html)
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), and make the CD bootable.

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool.

How do I find the manufacturer of my hard drive? My PC was custom made.

I actually re-read your question and...disregard my previous advice

I see, you complain only about browser speed, not computer speed.

What browser/version is it?
Did you try another browser?
What type of internet connection do you have?
Was the browser faster before?

I'm using Mozilla Firefox 3.6 with a cable connection. The problem seems to come and go. Every Sunday I use CCleaner and Disk Cleanup and do a reboot. As of today everything has been relatively fine. A tad sluggish in spots. Right now, for example, everything is okay.

I never thought to try another browser when the problem is at its worst. Firefox has been very fast since I started using it. This problem is a recent happening.

The only thing I can suggest is getting more RAM.

In my opinion you have enough RAM as for Windows XP.

Intermittent problems are pretty hard to solve, so I'll try some general advice.

What AV, firewall do you have?

Bookmark this site: http://www.speedtest.net/
Run couple of speed tests, when FF is working fine (write down the numbers)
Visit the same site, when you see FF misbehaving. Compare the numbers with the numbers, you wrote down.
Check speeds with IE.

When FF seems to be slow...
Close Firefox. Go Start>All Programs>Mozilla Firefox, click on Mozilla Firefox (safe mode). Same thing?

Let me know, how it goes.

It's starting to strain right now when I go from page to page. I went to Internet Explorer and am not having any problems, so it seems clear it's a Firefox issue.

I use avast and Windows firewall.

This post has been edited by Bleedo: 12 April 2010 - 11:04 PM

Try this:

Quote

Does it appear to be slowing down with more usage time?

Yes, it slows down with more usage time.

I'm in safe mode right now with Firefox and it's not straining.

I did the speed test with Firefox and then again with IE.

Firefox:

Download 3.63 Mb/s
upload 0.43 Mb/s
Ping 26ms

IE:

Download 3.70 Mb/s
upload 0.42 Mb/s
Ping 21 ms

It looks like some of add-ons is messing with you.

Start FF normally, disable all add-ons.
Restart FF, re-enable one add-on.
Restart FF and use it for a while with just 1 add-on.
Good?
Re-enable next one and use FF for a while.
...and so on until you find the culprit.
Main suspects - toolbars.

Check also this site: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions (Problematic extensions)

The more tabs you have open in Firefox the more memory it eats up. I have seen FF use up to 700Megabytes of RAM before. At work I use Firefox and have 3 windows open and in each FF I have about 8 tabs open. My system at work shows upwards of 500Megs of RAM used.

I only had two add-ons and one of them was the Yahoo! toolbar. I disabled that and have noticed an immediate difference.

Broni and cryptodan,

Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it.

I agree with Broni, I think the amount of ram you have is fine and is not the root of your problem, especially since it is the speed of the internet, not the speed of your computer that you are having issues with.

Any chance your ISP is metering (I think that is what it is called) your connection?

Do these slow downs occur at any specific time of day each day?

Also, are there any specific type of websites that you are having trouble with?

I don't use Firefox but my computer is way older than yours, I have a slower processor, only a P3 600 Mhz, I have less ram than you do, only 640 meg, and I never have trouble with speed.

Granted, it is not lighning fast like the brand new computers with very large processors and tons of ram, but it is plenty fast for me. Websites (and programs) load rather quickly, regardless of how long I have been on the computer and the internet.

This post has been edited by Stang777: 13 April 2010 - 05:18 AM