Hello,
I’m having problems with my browsers hanging on loading pages on my desktop machine. I’m using Windows XP Pro with SP3 and fully updated except for IE 8. All three of my browsers, IE 7, Chrome and Firefox are having the same problems. Pages are not being loaded and are hanging on “waiting for …”. The browsers are waiting for the page being loaded or ad servers. Sometimes a page will load but the loading graphic continues to be displayed as if the page were still loading when the page appears to be fully loaded. The problem is bad enough that I can’t really use any of my browsers. I can eventually get most pages to load by stopping and restarting the page load.
I have DSL modem with a wireless router and I have been able to eliminate the modem and router from being the source of my problem. My laptop doesn’t have any problems even when hardwired to the router and with the wireless connection disabled. I deleted the NIC and let XP re-install. Also tried a different network cable. Tried the same router port used in the laptop test.
One clue that may be important is that I can’t connect to my router using the desktop machine…the page hangs while trying to connect. I can ping the router and I can quickly connect to the router using the laptop.
I also can’t use the Windows update process – the page never fully loads.
The problem affects other user accounts and even happens in safe mode. I am convinced the problem is with part of the O/S…some layer able to affect all of the browsers.
The purpose of this post is to see if anyone has some ideas before I do a XP repair.
I have done quite a bit of trouble-shooting:
Ran a full anti-virus scan with AVG – no problems.
Ran full scans with Spybot, MalwareBytes and Sophos anti-rootkit – no problems.
Ran Chkdsk with both options checked.
Ran Disk Clean up
Defragged
RE-installed IE7
Cleared all the browser caches
Ran Ccleaner (registry tool)
Ran HijackThis – nothing unusual (problem happens in safe mode too)
Ran Process Explorer – no unusual processes
Used System Restore and fell back several days – no change in the problem
Booted to last known good configuration – no change in the problem
Ran MicrosoftFixit50199.msi – no change in the problem
Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated…I’m not looking forward to doing a repair on XP.
Thanks in advance for any help.
