I've been experiencing intermittent connection problem with my computer the last few days. I would loose a connection for seemingly no reason at all, I had comments that didn't post, I got messages that said I had connection problems, and so on and so forth. You all know what I'm talking about.
Then I started having problems with my mouse. The wheel wouldn't work and it acted like it just wasn't connecting properly. I tapped it ever so gently <grin> a few times, I wiggled it around on the mouse pad, I even took the batteries out and reinserted them. But still it was acting strange.
I began to grow concerned that I either:
A. had a nasty virus (and I don't mean a cold) OR
B. someone had hacked into my network and was wreaking havoc on my computer.
I even checked out the front window to see if anyone was sitting in their car in front of my house hunched over a laptop. All was quiet and no hackers were observed. Yes, I do have a secure network but you never know!
Then I started running diagnostics. I did every scan that I could do. I opened task manager to see what processes were running and checked out the ones that I wasn't sure of. I checked my memory and my CPU usage. It all looked good and yet my problems continued. I finally asked Russ if he was having any problems and he said he wasn't so I knew it couldn't be the ISP or the modem or the router. I removed extraneous programs and took unneeded items out of my start up. I did not know what else to do.
So Russ and I are on the same network, my computer seems healthy, I found no viruses, yet he's breezing along and I am bogged down - and I have the better computer! Then the light went on - Russ was using FireFox and I was using IE. I had not downloaded FireFox on this computer but I did have Safari ready to go. I closed IE, opened Safari and my problems disappeared. My mouse now worked as I wasn't waiting eons for pages to load. I was able to open multiple windows without a problem. Everything was great!
This morning I downloaded FireFox and transferred all my bookmarks and got everything set up the way I wanted it. Now here's where the toast part comes in cuz that's what Internet Explorer is - TOAST!
...but I still need to take a look at Chrome...haven't got around to that yet.
I did get a virus when we were in Albuquerque. Finally found a geek who made motor home calls and he was able to get me taken care of in about three hours. At that point he told me do not use IE and so I switched immediately to Firefox. I still have an occasional issue but it is so much better than IE. Glad you were able to figure out what was wrong.
ReplyDeleteI had the same prob about a year ago & switched to Firefox...SO MUCH BETTER -- no more IE for me either:)
ReplyDeleteGood catch on switching browsers to solve your problem.
ReplyDeletegreat catch..you are the computer woman!!!..never would have thought of that!..or even tried that trick!
ReplyDeleteRuss, we have been using Chrome since rick turned us on to it, It is fast and does have all the popups you get with IE. Give it a free try. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna...
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed! All that you did is pretty much Greek to me. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm still using Internet Explorer--so far, no problelms.
ReplyDeleteFunny, just yesterday my web master husband was doing some revisions and he was talking about Internet Explorer not being used much anymore.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what I would do without him. I use the computers, and love my laptop, but don't know much about how to update and check if there is a real problem.
Iguess if I didn't have him to do it all for me, I'd just have to learn!
I like Geek Squad. Use them about once a year..Sounds like you know a lot more about computers than I do. I just learned that they need a total cleaning to run the right way so it is worth the money to me to know it is done. Good job... :)
ReplyDeleteWe have been using IE since back in 98 & seem to be OK with it but it's always in the back of mind to try something else. Maybe I'm waiting for problems to occur before trying one of the other browsers.
ReplyDeleteI need to get a move on and switch to Chrome on my home PC.
ReplyDeleteI switched to Chrome a while back when my favorite Geek (Rick) recommended it. I used Firefox before that. Glad you found the fix!
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