[Sithian]

Hello, I figured this would be a good place to post, as I am sure there are plenty of tecchnies who may read this post-I have a somewhat old machine (4-5 yrs)- it runs decent, and I can play games like Half Life 2 on it- Its got 2 GHz Pentium 4, ATI PCI 256 Radeon 9600, and 1 GB of Ram and plenty of Hard Drive space. Well- for some reason, whenever I log onto MySpace, I crash. This does not happen with other computers on my wireless system (work laptops). Also, whenever I attempt to log into the Guild Wars game, I freeze up and have to pull power cord out and reboot (same as I do with MySpace)> It seems these problems may be related- Does anyone have any idea what may be happening??I plan on getting a new machine after Vista comes out, so Im not getting too worked up about it, but I would really like to be able to play Guild Wars- I just got it and havent been able to play hehe. Thanks!

[jbking]

What firewall are you using? My guess would be that the firewall kicks in with a warning about either GW running a DNS query or wanting to access the Internet. As for the MySpace issue what browser are you using and are there any add-ons that may get hung on something on that site?Regards,JB

[Sithian]

Thanks for the reply- my DLink router has a built in Firewall. I also use Norton Antivirus. As far as warnings go, there aren't any... basically as soon as I hit the myspace profile page- not myspace home page- (with Explorer or Firefox) the machine will freeze. When I click on the GuildWars icon it doesnt even get past the intro screen- just locks up on me in either case...

[jbking]

Is the router's firewall turned on and set up to allow Guild Wars to connect and run? Can you confirm whether or not your CPU usage is spiking to 100% in these cases and so the freeze is from a program taking all the resources while waiting for something? How often do you have Norton run scans?Just trying to get some more data on what is going on here since usually a freeze is that something is running and taking over and so we have to try to track down what that is. Do you run anything to check for adware or spyware?Regards,JB

[Sithian]

About the firewell- I have played other online games like WoW and CoH and never had a problem. I don't know about the CPU usage as it freezes up so fast that I cannot move mouse- and I wouldnt know how to check. Norton scans once a week- and I scanned today and there was nothing there. I also ran Adaware and Spybot (Free Versions) and it still freezes. I guess I will need to buy one of the Spyware programs- one of my friends thinks that I have a spyware problem- I don't know...

[Harmonic7]

If it wasn't for your video card, I'd say it was your CPU, for sure - Norton is very CPU hungry & 2 GHz is no longer up to a lot of programs out there these days (even "MySpace" is so graphics intensive it can easily cause an 'under-powered machine to lock up). Try shutting down Norton & see if it makes any difference.As for malware scanners, before spending money on a prg which may or may not help you solve the problem, try the freebie "SUPERAntiSpyware" (www.superantispyware.com). Altho you can get a better free real-time monitor (Spyware Terminator), SAS's on-demand scan is reputed to be excellent.

[SpiritWind]

{size:18px}[/size]:D Hi Sithian : With the computer you now have, it would be wise to use an antiVIRUS program that does NOT use up a computer's system resources like Norton; many months ago I switched from Norton to Avast Antivirus Home Edition, a very Good and FREE program, which uses much less "resources" than Norton. This free program also have 7 "Providers/Shields" and EXCELLENT SUPPORT Forums. I will admit that Norton can be time consuming in getting ALL of it OFF a computer; you will definitely need to use its "Uninstall Tool" . Are you running your Ad-Aware and/or Spybot scans OFFLINE ? It is best to run these while you are NOT connnected to the net. And I definitely recommend you "replace" Spybot with the FREE version of "SUPERantispyware" from www.superantispyware.com . Avast is located at www.avast.com; to learn more about this program. go to : www.avast.com/eng/faq-avast-4-home-professional.html .

[Harmonic7]

Don't overlook "AntiVir" (www.freeav.com) for good free AV. But if you want the best in state-of-the-art AV, BitDefender or Nod32 are reputed to be the way to go. Whatever the case, you are well advised to dump Norton - I've personally written off several Symantec products in the past, & so have several friends - they're intrusive & CPU hogging (& apparently techSupport will try to screw you for more bucks if you ever have even a simple problem) - easy to do better. (At least keep it in mind for your new machine!)

[Sithian]

Cool-How is McAfee- I can get that for free with my Comcast subscription?

[SpiritWind]

{size:18px}[/size]:D Hi Sithian : McAfee is about the same as Norton; they share #1 in being "resource hogs". The only things you should use from an ISP is connecting to the net and possibly their email service. Any antivirus and/or antispyware program coming through an ISP is a "stripped down" version of the "real thing".

[Sithian]

SuperAntiSpyware rocks- and I uninstalled Norton and went with Avast- good stuffGuildWars still freezes the machine though :(

[brian76]

I have the same problem... It usually happens when im in Ebay, or yahoo mail... I have tried Nortons, vet, but don't seem to make any difference. I have also been using ad aware for a few years. I find it freezes when i use the scrolling button on the mouse - tried different mouse, still does the same.. am almost at a loss as to what to try next, other than to reboot system. Would like some other ideas on what else to try. Firewall is turned on via control panel. please help...

[art4]

I read S. Manes article in the January issue and would offer the following:True true true about promises.Anyway I have found through painful and time consuming trials that when my machine hangs up (mouse pointer will move but not respond to left mouse button) I do one CTRLALTDELETE to get the TASK Manager up and then go to the process tab and look for DRWTSN32.EXE and end that process; I have no idea what this process does but my machine unlocks after this manuever. Sometimes there is more than one of these running.The good work that the GATES FOUNDATION is doing is one reason why I would subject myself to a VISTA upgrade but only with a new machine.If I could have found Manes e-mail address I would not have had to subject all of you to this.New user,Art

[KellieCM]

All PC World email addresses follow the firstame_lastname@pcworld.com naming convention. So Stephen Manes would Stephen Manes at pc world dot com.I'll send him a link to your post, too.Kellie