Web Browsers Consistently Hang

[Redd42]

For the last week or so, all my web browsers repeatedly hang. Sometimes after a few hours of use, sometimes much shorter. I usually use Firefox so suspected that may be the problem at first, but Chrome does the exact same thing.

I've tried everything I can think of - making sure drivers are up to date, checking plug-ins, scanning for malware (with multiple programs - Malware Bytes, Spybot, Combofix, Ccleaener), disbaling hardware acceleration in the browser, restoring to a previous restore point from before this happened, re-installing the browser, basically everything I can think of with my limited knowledge.

Everything I can think of, basically. And nothing appears to solve the issue. I realise the machine is old (I'm running Vista 64, so yeah) but was hoping to get a little bit more life out of the machine before I replace it in the next year.

Can anyone think of anything that might be the answer? I'm well and truly stumped.

 

[hang-the-9]

Did you check anything with your internet connection? Reboot the modem and router? Are there other systems connected that don't have the issue? You may need to do a clean Windows setup to clean it up.

 

[Redd42]

Tried rebooting the router, and the issue re-occurred several hours later. I have nothing else connected, so I can't verify if it's a network issue that would affect multiple machines.

 

[Redd42]

As an update, I ran the machine in Safe mode with Networking last night, left it on all night and it was still running fine when I checked it this morning. Not sure what that would suggest, exactly?

 

[rgd1101]

it hardware acceleration turn on on the browser?

 

[hang-the-9]

Tried rebooting the router, and the issue re-occurred several hours later. I have nothing else connected, so I can't verify if it's a network issue that would affect multiple machines.

When the issue happens, does rebooting the router fix it right away or does it not at times?

 

[Redd42]

it hardware acceleration turn on on the browser?

I've tried it both on and off, and it seems to make no difference.

 

[Redd42]

Tried rebooting the router, and the issue re-occurred several hours later. I have nothing else connected, so I can't verify if it's a network issue that would affect multiple machines.

When the issue happens, does rebooting the router fix it right away or does it not at times?

Only logging off/rebooting the machine fixes the problem, but the length of time between occurrences seems random. Yesterday for example, I used the machine for about 4 or 5 hours before it happened once. The next time happened just 30 minutes later.

 

[hang-the-9]

Tried rebooting the router, and the issue re-occurred several hours later. I have nothing else connected, so I can't verify if it's a network issue that would affect multiple machines.

When the issue happens, does rebooting the router fix it right away or does it not at times?

Only logging off/rebooting the machine fixes the problem, but the length of time between occurrences seems random. Yesterday for example, I used the machine for about 4 or 5 hours before it happened once. The next time happened just 30 minutes later.

Do you lose all network connection or just the internet? You really need a good way of testing what goes out, if it's just your system or the whole connection to the house, if it's hardware or software. You don't have a smart phone or tablet on wireless that you can test with? Is the sytem a desktop or laptop? Did you test on wireless and wired both? Can you still ping web servers when you can't browse the net? Or do the programs lock up totally where you need to hard shut down the system or use task manager to close them??

Really the best thing is just a clean Windows setup, that will clear up any issues if they were software based, but you need to re-install your programs and backup your files.

 

[MusenMouse]

Tried rebooting the router, and the issue re-occurred several hours later. I have nothing else connected, so I can't verify if it's a network issue that would affect multiple machines.

When the issue happens, does rebooting the router fix it right away or does it not at times?

Only logging off/rebooting the machine fixes the problem, but the length of time between occurrences seems random. Yesterday for example, I used the machine for about 4 or 5 hours before it happened once. The next time happened just 30 minutes later.

Maybe the computer is having a resource bottleneck. How is the CPU and RAM usage when the slowdown on your browsers occur?

 

[Redd42]

Rebooting the modem when the problem occurs doesn't do anything; and my smart phone keeps it's connection fine right at that moment, so it's definitely specific to the machine. The desk top has no wireless connection so I can't see if it works wirelessly, only wired. Task manager also won't start when the problem occurs, nor will any other programs. I have to ctrl-alt-del and log off, then log back on again to clear it. (Or restart, but logging off is obviously quicker).

I'm not sure about CPU and RAM usage, how would I measure that? It's not that the machine slows and eventually the browsers hang, it's always completely out of nowhere.

Starting to think only a clean install will fix this, if anything at all.

 

[MusenMouse]

You can check CPU and RAM usage by starting up Task Manager. You can search for it in the search bar or do Ctrl+Alt+Delete and it will give you the option to start task manager.

 

[Redd42]

Okay, I see it. What am I looking for exactly?

 

[MusenMouse]

Click the performance tab and you should see CPU and RAM usage.

 

[rgd1101]

how much ram do you have? can you run disk check?

 

[Redd42]

I think I'm on the verge of giving up with the machine. Trying to do a clean install of windows and I can't even get it to recognize the disk is in the drive.