Guys and Gals

I have a wee problem - my PC (2.8HGz, 512Mb, XP Pro SP1) seems to pause occassionally, especially after using Outlook and downloading email or occassionally after surfing. When it pauses the internet connection indicator in the taskbar doesn't change (doesn't go away), even though the modem disconnects but nothing else will run.

Clicking on anything gets a brief hour glass then nothing, in this state not even the control+alt+delete will bring anything up. Sometimes the pause lasts a few minutes then the PC suddenly wakes up and does all the things you've clicked on whilst in pause mode.

Have up to date Nortons anti-virus and checked with Adware and SpyBot and nothing FOUND.

To clarify my problem as my writing isn't as clear as I first thought, all goes fine whilst I'm connected to the net for email or browsing. But when I disconnect the connection icon (two linked PC's on right hand side of task bar) doesn't change even though the computer has physically disconnected.

Then when I try and open another application the computer pauses for up to a minute or two before the application opens. Sometimes an application that was already open when I disconnect runs ok, but sometimes not. eg sometimes I can reply to an email in Outlook and sometimes can't - pressing reply will bring up a new window but everything stops when I try and type a reply.

Even the start-close sequence doesn't work - just get an hourglass up for a bit but no closedown.

Hope this makes it a bit easier to understand.


Alan...You should really update to SP2 really otherwise there is no knowing what the problem might be.

There was a security update for IE just this morning and WMP10 is now available outside of the US of A.

All updates installed beautifully and WMP10 is now playing Karen Carpenter's "It's going to take some time this time ... "

It is a BIG improvement on WMP9 with a MUCH better layout for the interface.

About ten DAYS ago I used AutoStreamer 1·0 to merge the SP2 update together with the files on my original XP CD and burn a new XPSP2 CD.

(You can either use the full 266Mb SP2 download from MS or use the FREE SP2 CD from MS which will do Home and Professional versions of XP and is a better deal.)

It won't take more than about 25 minutes for AutoStreamer to make an .ISO file for you to burn the new XPSP2 CD and then it is really quick doing a CLEAN install, update and re-install the rest.

I kept all my settings on three FLOPPIES made by the File & Settings Transfer Wizard. The files stayed on drives D: E: and F: so that was not a problem.

You get a MUCH cleaner install if you do it that way.

I installed the Recovery Console to the HDD this time and put Title Bar Clock on the system and added Layout.zip to remember the desktop icon layout.