I have a laptop at college that works with the network access in the dorms. It has 128MB of RAM, 10 gig HD, and a celeron processor with Windows ME. And whenever i get on to Internet explorer, the internet is slow to the point where certain pictures and pages won't even come up. I will get a message saying that it can't find the page or there was a problem loading the content. Also slowed down my AIM to the point where it takes forever to get on when everybody else can get on fast. Do i need more RAM or what could it be?

Hi Chad, What speed is you internet provider? Also did this problem just start or has it been this way always?

chad if you are on the school server, then the speed should be quite fast...comparable to cable....and if your other friends could get on the net then the problem should like in your laptop. can you even load any page, or is it just very slow?

hello try these Subject: How to run Windows ME well, v.3 Original Message Name: Trev Date: January 07, 2002 at 11:14:31 Pacific Subject: How to run Windows ME well, v.3 Comment: This is version 3 of an old digest post of mine (14062 and 13240 were previous versions). The post is designed to act as a reference to which people can be directed in the forum. Thanks to Justin for allowing me to use the space and for such a good forum. Thanks also to those who have e-mailed suggestions for inclusion here and to those from whom I have learned over the years on the forum. Points 5,9,10,12,14,15,16 are either new or have been rewritten. If these help you, please post or mail me to say how at tadams62@hotmail.com in the interests of further improvement. You can mail or post queries about them too. Good luck ! Trev. (Regulars on the forum will not find anything startlingly new here) These moves solve a large number of ME problems and conflicts. I do these with a new system anyway, just so it runs well. 1. First, set a system restore point so that you can go all the way back if you want to (Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore) 2. Disable all forms of power management (Right click on desktop, Properties, Screensaver, Settings, set the turn offs and the standby to “never” – while you’re in screensaver set it to none). Disable power management in your PC Bios as well (reboot, press Delete until you see the Bios, put in the password if you have one, find the power management section and ensure power management is disabled, save and exit – reboot) 3. Check various hardware settings. Make sure that DMA is enabled for your CD drive, DVD drive, hard disks if they are DMA compatible - right click on My Computer then go to Properties, Device Manager, find each device and click on it, then go to its properties box, settings tab and check the DMA box. Again, don't worry - if it isn't able for DMA it should uncheck itself on a reboot - you can look again and see. Enabling DMA makes a huge difference to games and DVDs in Windows ME. Check the Video card settings (Right click “My Computer”, Properties, Device Manager, Performance, Graphics, set accelerator to maximum), While you’re in Performance, click File System, Hard Disk, set the sliders fully to the right and change the role of the PC from desktop to network server even if it’s not – this increases speed of access). Click Floppy Disk and uncheck the search for floppy drives box. Click CD Rom and check the cache size is large and the optimisation box is correct for your drive. Click removable disk if you have one and enable write behind caching. Don’t go near “troubleshooting”. 4. Run the Direct X tests. Start, Run, type dxdiag, press Enter, go through the tabs and look at the reports at the bottom, run the sound and video tests, update any drivers it suggests at component manufacturer’s website. (If in doubt try www.drivershq.com or www.driverguide.com ) 5. Disable all the potential conflicts that come with ME, such as all scheduled tasks in Start, Programs, Accessories, System tools, Scheduled tasks, by using the properties box on each task (right click to get it). Remove Universal Plug and Play if it is installed (Start, Settings, Control Panel, Add Remove Programs, Windows Setup, Communications, Details, uncheck the box). This is a program which is designed to tell your central heating etc to start in Microsoft’s future world, but what it does is call home on the internet, so it can conflict with lots of things. Disable Windows automatic update (Start, Settings, Control Panel, Automatic Updates, check the third setting). Don't let Norton (or equivalent utilities or anti-virus programs) run any scheduled tasks - when installing Utilities or Systemworks 2001/2002 or equivalent, tell it that you will do all your tasks manually, except for virus autoscan. Running System Doctor in the background causes many problems. Note that Norton 2000 is not compatible with ME. (There are interesting posts on Norton here http://www.computing.net/windowsme/wwwboard/forum/17247.html and http://www.computing.net/windowsme/wwwboard/forum/17358.html ) 6. Disable active desktop, it uses resources (right click on the desktop, active desktop, make sure the web content line is unchecked). Don’t use wallpaper while troubleshooting (right click desktop, properties, background, set wallpaper to “none”). 7. If you have Office installed disable Findfast (first go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, Find Fast, delete the indexes, look in the menus and uncheck “run at startup”. Next get out your Office CD 1 and in the maintenance mode of the setup program go to Office Tools and make Find Fast unavailable.) Disable the Office toolbar while troubleshooting if you use it. It causes some conflicts. Make sure you have all appropriate service releases installed if you are using Office with ME. 8. ME instals a compiled VXD driver called VMM32.VXD which can cause crashes and hangs and sometimes gives a message mentioning VMM. It is supposed to be a compilation of drivers appropriate to your particular PC but sometimes does not work properly. It is replacing other drivers available in ME which can be installed individually into the System folder. The relevant devices will then choose the single driver instead of the compiled one by preference. So, go to C:\Windows\Options\Cabs (or C:\Windows\Options\Instal on some PCs), find Win 20 which looks like a Zip file (it’s an installation Cab), use an Unzip program to look inside and find these 8 drivers, for example – vcomm.vxd, vdd.vxd, vflatd.vxd, vdmad.vxd, vmouse.vxd, configmg.vxd, ntkern.vxd, and ios.vxd Extract these files to the C:\Windows\System directory and reboot. These changes can, in certain circumstances, solve a lot of hanging, crashing, startup and shutdown problems in ME. It is important not to download any other copies of these drivers from websites because they may not be the correct versions for your installation. If this was not your problem, it is perfectly safe to remove these drivers again. 9. Disable unnecessary programs in startup by going to Start, Run, type msconfig press enter, go to Startup tab, uncheck any unnecessary programs, especially PCHealth, Load power profile (usually there twice), Scheduling agent, anything that mentions scheduling. Look at http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_index.htm for detailed advice on this. The freeware program End it All can also be useful for this and is available here http://home.ptd.net/~don5408/toolbox/enditall/ 10. Update all device drivers to the newest ME compatible versions from the manufacturers’ websites. (If in doubt try www.drivershq.com ) If all this hasn’t solved your problem and especially if you are experiencing video, vmouse or VMM (01) problems, update VIA chipset patches at http://www.viatech.com/jsp/en/dr/driver.jsp or, if you have an Intel chipset, download an updated ATA storage driver from http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/driver.htm If you don’t know which you have right click on My Computer, go to properties, device manager, expand the + sign beside system devices and scroll down the list. If you have a whole load of VIA stuff at the end, you have VIA chipset drivers. 11. Update graphics card BIOS if it has one, update PC BIOS if you have serious resistant problems and have tried all other points in this post. PC Bios update is a mission critical one, easy to explode in your face if you have a power failure while it’s in progress, so do some advanced reading before you try it. For example, http://www.mitre.org/research/cots/FLASHBIOS.html 12. For a general performance boost, If you have room to create a separate partition for your Windows swap file, do so. Start, settings, Control Panel, System, Performance, Virtual Memory, Let me specify my own virtual memory settings, and type the new drive letter for the swap file (e.g. D:\). While you're there, manually set the size of the swap file. It should be at least 150 Mb in size but much larger is helpful. If you have the space, set it to 1Gb (type 1000 in minimum and maximum). Reboot and run scandisk and defragment. If you use Norton Utilities to defragment you don’t even need a separate partition because it will defragment the swap file and place it at the beginning of your hard drive for you. Another performance boost can be obtained by turning off animated menus (Start, Settings, Control Panel, Display, Effects, uncheck the “use transition effects” box). 13. If you have to format your C drive and reinstall ME because of problems, set it up as above, and install only one of your programs at a time. Test your problems between each program installation. If you find it’s a program, uninstall the program, do a system restore and see if there’s a patch at the manufacturer’s website. 14. If you play games on your PC it is helps to reboot before and after each game. There is a separate post on installing games on Windows ME here. http://www.computing.net/windowsme/wwwboard/forum/17486.html 15. Some people recommend disabling system restore for a performance boost. Doing so will boost speed a little but I do not support this recommendation unless you have a total backup of your system (i.e. a Norton Ghost cloned drive or a tape backup copy including the registry). System restore can get you out of a lot of trouble. 16. After you have set up your system as you want it, keep your PC running well by using scandisk/defrag regularly or Norton versions which are better (how often? – once a month if your usage is low, once a week if you use a lot of programs and/or the internet, every time after you uninstall a large program and again after installing a program), run Adaware from http://www.lavasoft.com to keep trojans away from your PC and every few days completely clean out your internet files using the method suggested here http://computing.net/windows95/wwwboard/forum/63127.html response number 44. Also delete everything in your C:\Windows\Temp folder after ensuring that hidden files are showing (if you don’t know how, go to Windows help index and search for “hidden files and folders, showing”). If you also keep your anti-virus up to date and run a personal firewall such as Zone Alarm or Tiny Personal Firewall, you should have a well run, neat and tidy installation of Win Me. have a nice day

Try turning off the Automatic Windows Updates and Internet Explorer Updates as mentioned in the above text first before trying all that other stuff. In IE click Internet Options, click Advanced un-check "Automatically check for Internet Explorer updates" (Start - Settings - Control Panel - Automatic Updates) set button - "Turn off automatic updating, I will update my ....", then OK. Reboot and try again. This sometimes causes problems. If it works, use the Windows Update options to update your system manually. Next get AD-Aware program from lavasoft.de and look for Spyware/Ad-ware on your system. If you have been trying to download music, then you may have some of this stuff on your system and do not know about it. There are also some network server setting that could be messed up causing this problem.