Computer Glitch

Get rid of it. On-line auction sites (names withheld) are great for solving problems like that.

Too many old / junk files on your hard disk? Or in cache maybe?

I was having similar problems with this PC I'm using now. It's older than yours and running XP. I eventually found about 45 GB of junk sitting on my 70 GB hard drive. Once I cleared out all that crap and de-fragged the HD it ran (and continues to run) faster with fewer glitches. It took 2 days for the PC to delete all those junk files and another day to de-frag.

Are you using DSL? Have you run a speed test?

YEs running dsl, Yes ran a speed check, speed is same as when I first got dsl.

Yes I did defrag and yes I think I got rid of most junk files. also did virus scan, came up negative.

Thanks

oilcan13

Can you restore to an earlier version?

Otherwise, this will become 20 questions.

Have not tried that. was hoping to solve problem without doing that.

Thanks

oilcan13

Suggest loading a second web browser from different vendor and flag it as your primary browser. If problem goes away, uninstall your original browser, reboot, reinstall.

I will give this a try.

Thanks

oilcan13

When you are in your browser, try holding the shift key and clicking on the "refresh" button for the browser. That should clear your browser cache.

Ctrl "R" refreshes my PC.

Try swapping browsers first. (credit post #6)

If that doesn't help, I'd "test" the system using a Live Linux CD.

Old hardware consisting of a P4 @ 1.5GHz with 1 GB RAM, a 20 GB HDD, and a CDRW should "easily" run Linux with a web browser, an email client, and an office suite with NO problems.

Download and burn a live CD of Ubuntu, Mint, Slax, or Puppy Linux.
There are many other distros, but I've successfully used these on dozens of PC's, laptops, and thin clients.

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop
http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php
http://www.slax.org/en/
http://puppylinux.org/main/Overview%20and%20Getting%20Started.htm

Set your bios to boot from CDROM and be patient. Loading a full OS into RAM from a CDROM is initially slow, but things do speed up. If you can perform your normal tasks without problems, then you've got a MS/Windoze issue (not a surprise). If Linux won't load or the problems persist, you have a hardware issue.

Don't worry, Linux won't change your existing OS unless you WANT to change something.

If you can fix the problem using your existing OS, keep the Linux CD handy for emergency file backup and difficult Antivirus/Malware removal. Hope you find a good fix :-)

I'm not a computer whiz, this sounds very complicated.

Thanks

oilcan13

Not sure if you've solved this yet, since there have been good suggestions, please let us know the solution that solves the problem. My suggestion would be to right click the link, then open link in another tab, if allows you to.

Thanks Mike.

I don't have a lot of time to spend on the computer. I have tried a few of the suggestions with no results. However I now can click on two or three links with no problem. example I just clicked on four different links and they all came up, but the fifth link gave me "internet has stopped working" message because of a problem with the site. about a minute later a message appeared saying the site has been recovered and VIOLA the site came up. So I don't know whats going on. \

I haven't tried down loading the linux recovery yet, I'm a little hesitant about doing that because I'm really not that computer savvy.

I'll try Your suggestion next.

oilcan13

Even though this is an old thread, I have a new question. Are you using wireless? This actually sounds like a network problem. If you are using wireless, try connecting the computer with an ethernet cable to the router, and turn wireless off on your computer. Have you asked AT&T for a replacement router? If the wired ethernet solves the problem, and a new router doesn't solve this, you may want to repost this question as a wireless network problem. Please be sure to post the solution.

Not using wireless. I did get a new router about 6 months ago for an unrelated problem. Since I posted the question the problem has surfaced only on occasions. for some odd reason it works fine somtimes and then again the problem will pop up for no reason. Ive tried a few of the solutions that were put forth, but not sure if any had an effect. since the problem is intermittent i'm going to have to sort it out one app at a time. i do appreciate all the suggestions put forth, and if i do come to a conclusion or solve the problem i will post the results.

thanks to all who suggested a solution

oilcan13