Computer problems

LFADAM · Posted: Aug 18, 2008 5:00 pm Post subject: Computer problems

My laptop is dead, and my desktop is driving me crazy. Somehow the font on everything got huge (most notably noticed on IE) so I have to scroll a ton to read anything. How do you make it normal again? And the real cause of frustration is that this computer cant complete an effing download! It can be a web page or a online video or a file Im downloading and it starts fine and then gets to a certain point and just stops loading and wont start again even if it sits there for days. If I refresh/restart the download it may get further or may be worse but itll get to a spot and stop again. Occasionally after multiple tries itll get all the way through without stopping but 9 times out of 10 Im just SOL and cant download/see whatever Im trying to. Very annoying. Help is much appreciated...

JoeyJojo · Posted: Aug 18, 2008 5:24 pm Post subject:

hold ctrl and scroll your mouse wheel maybe? oh yeah, what is the OS? XP or vista?

LFADAM · Posted: Aug 18, 2008 6:02 pm Post subject:

JoeyJojo, XP for both laptop and desktop

JoeyJojo · Posted: Aug 18, 2008 6:15 pm Post subject:

if holding the ctrl and rolling the mouse wheel didnt solve font size you may can hit alt -> view -> text size

this really sounds like a firewall/router issue. any new stuff lately? and if you have firefox, does it give you the same problems?

LFADAM · Posted: Aug 19, 2008 3:17 am Post subject:

JoeyJojo, the control and scroll worked. thanks.

As for new stuff...nope. Its actually done this for as long as I remember I just never use this computer so I forgot about it. It does it on firefox and IE. If it makes any difference, it uses the same internet connection as my laptop (did) and the laptop never had this problem.

JoeyJojo · Posted: Aug 19, 2008 7:08 am Post subject:

any kind of firewall installed? norton, zone alarm, etc? also, if you boot into safe mode, are the problems still persistent?

i would also install spybot s&d and superantispyware and run both of those

LFADAM · Posted: Aug 19, 2008 12:20 pm Post subject:

EZ Firewall and Antivirus

JoeyJojo · Posted: Aug 19, 2008 12:49 pm Post subject:

try disabling it and see if that helps. it really sounds like a firewall issue on that computer.

oshensurfer · Posted: Aug 19, 2008 1:39 pm Post subject:

I never knew that font size trick. Thanks JoeyJojo.

oshensurfer · Posted: Aug 19, 2008 1:40 pm Post subject:

JoeyJojo, Don't the window firewall and some other firewalls conflict alot?

JoeyJojo · Posted: Aug 19, 2008 1:46 pm Post subject:

yep, and ez firewall (which is just an older version of zone alarm) and XP SP2 can have some compatability issues as well. adware can couse some strange loading problems, but the fact that it is loading pages and download that is causing problems, and it is affecting both ie and firefox, it sounds like a firewall issue

LFADAM · Posted: Aug 19, 2008 1:59 pm Post subject:

JoeyJojo, I disabled the firewall and it seemed to fix it for the most part at least. Ill have to try it for an extended period of time to see if its 100 percent but it worked much better for the time I tried it. Thanks