IE now takes 50 seconds to "connect"

I have a new computer (as some of you most painfully know) with XP Pro and DSL and all had been fine until I installed a game, Age of Empires III. Now I have a possible connection problem with IE and OE.

IE and OE now both need 50 seconds before they will "connect ". Once either one connects, they are both fine until I reboot. It takes that long for the DSL to connect but that may be only symptomatic, and the progs may just stall that long for a different reason. Pointer still moves and other progs do open and connect/download while waiting. I have tried closing a lot of running programs in Task Manager but that did not make a difference.

Details: When opening IE, the panels are all blank exc for the taskbars until that 50 seconds arrives. When opening OE, the panels are full. OE is set to send/receive upon opening and clicking SEND only serves to freeze the button until it connects.

I am not sure where to even start with this one. Your help would be most appreciated.

Thanks, Lar

 

I called MS Games about this and they "Oh, no, not us... can you hold for 2 minutes... ". We uninstalled the game and it did not improve (so I re-installed it).

More facts, the DSL delay turns out to inaccurate. Yes, IE and OE stall for 50 secs before they connect and proceed. However, some other progs that do not connect completely delay opening up at all. For one, CCleaner waits 50 seconds before even opening. Also, another odd thing is that sometimes, just before the stall period ends and the hourglass/pointer starts blinking, I get a very fast tiny notice by the Systray that "you are at risk... no firewall has been activated ". But, my MS Firewall IS activated.

Does that mean anything to anyone?? Thanks, Lar

Should I consider using a Restore Point in this situation?

 

Lar - not trying to be a stalker but bounced over here to read your one man thread and provide some empathy. Trying a restore point certainly isn't going to hurt and can always be rolled back.

One question going back a couple of weeks ago - did Jr install AOL instant Messenger on there? If yes, be aware that it may have added its own connection manager and a whole bunch of other garbage. As of a few weeks back, even an uninstall left two running executables which they were forced to acknowlege after being added to a "Bad Software" listing.

Regardless, the hourglass or curser flashing may indicate something trying to load. You may also want to try running sfc /scannow from a command prompt with your XP CD in an optical drive. And, for what its worth - I personally think a couple of recent security patches have slowed the loading of web pages in general. (My own observation on several machines - different locations, different ISP's). This would also impact Outlook Express. Another potential excercise - go to Steve Gibson's site (GRC.com) and check your ports - that game install may have opened a few and changed your firewall settings.

Good Luck.

If no change after sfc /scannow - Perhaps a Moderator would want to move this to networking and draw some response from ReggieB or one with similar credentials.

 

Hey Rock, you are most kind. This one has been a one lane road, to be sure.

1. Did a system restore last night. scrwd up the game but fixed the problem. THEN, I reversed the restoration and everything was fine... until I ran the game again. Right after that the delays began again. During the delay, the pointer is unchanged and only after the ~50 sec delay, does the hourglass appear, start blinking for a few seconds and then we rev up to normal. Maybe I should uninstall the game again, do a restore, unrestore and then reinstall it again.

2. AIM- XP's Network Connections only shows 4 things: 1394, Local (ethernet DSL), Local 2 (Network bridge- whatever that is) and MSN (which I do not use). Don't see any AIM Connection and AIM has been on the box for weeks now. What is a "bad software" listing? Hopefully, nothing to do with my FICO score.

3. Sfc- doesn't its use come with a great deal of caution? I tried it but it asked for the Windows CD about 1,000 times (maybe 2), I kept hitting Retry and just got bored. Found a website on how to get around this Retry issue. I got through all of the Retry's. SFC completed without a whisper or prompting me for anything. However, now the computer would not open Windows upon reboot. I got the Windows "Did not open properly" screen and I had to use the "Last Known Good Config" choice. That was scarey. Here I am now, as a result.... still with the 50 sec delay.

Thanks a ton from down here in the lonely valley of darkness, Lar

 

I have resorted to penicillin for Windows.. System Restore. I went back to before Age of Empires 3 and it came back! Went further back to before Koday Easyshare and that must have been it.

Won't go down that road again.