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Internet Explorer 6 very slow opening/downloading Web Pages

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by geoff59

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I am running Windows XP Pro with IE6 SP1 on an AMD K6 500Mhz CPU computer with 256K RAM and find it takes ages to open and download a web page when I am on the Internet. I have been into System Config. Utility and unchecked all Services and then gradually rechecked each item. At the moment I left one program unchecked (InCD). The computer is running so much faster now and I opened a IE6 page in 10-15 seconds after rebooting the computer. Now I am on the Net with 4 IE6 pages open and I opened a new page and it took 45 seconds. XP is still running great but both IE6 and Netscape 7 are running very slow now. Some days speed is good and then other days its terrible. Yesterday was terrible, hence I looked at MSN Help/Support & used SCU. Is the problem in IE6 as My Vital Agent shows good data transfer averaging 34 kbps for my 56K Modem.
Even now with only 1 Netscape page open it took 60 seconds for an IE6 page to be half open according to the bars at the bottom yet I have had times where is has been very quick. Should I go back to IE5.5?

4 replies

by thechas

First, XP shipped with IE6. I don't believe it is possible to drop back to IE 5.5 without doing a clean custom install of XP SP1.
Even then, I would not expect IE 5.5 to function properly under XP.

When I had dial-up, I noticed that browsing on my XP box was SIGNIFICANTLY slower than browsing with my W98 box. Downloads were also slower.

Part of the problem is that XP 'reserves' some of your connection bandwidth.
You can get some improvement by disabling the services that XP uses to reserve bandwidth.

It's been a while, but I think this is the related article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];244910

Remove the space between =kb; and [LN];

Also, with more and more users on broadband connections, many web pages are overloaded with content, and take several seconds to load even then. I have DSL, and many pages take 30 seconds or more to load.

34k is somewhat slow for a 56K modem. You might want to see what can be done to speed up your connection.

Check you phone lines, and phones for problems.
The easy way to do this, is to disconnect the house wiring at the phone interface and plug the modem directly to the phone line.
If speed improves, you have a wire or phone that is causing interference.

Next, try different numbers for your ISP.
1 may work faster than others from your location.

As to InCD, that program is part of Nero Burning ROM, and is used for reading and writing to CD-RW disks.

If you can add more RAM to your system, XP will run a little faster.

Also, since you have a slower CPU, if you are using a "Win" controller-less modem, switching to a hardware modem will speed things up.
The easiest way to assure that you have a hardware modem, is to get an external serial port modem.

Chas

by geoff59

One night I tried to log in to a site with IE6 and after 40 minutes it was only half open. I then opened Netscape and it loaded in 3-4 minutes. I got so fed up I bought a new case with motherboard and CPU. I couldn't get the new motherboard to function, and as I couldn't return it to my supplier I reloaded XP on to another HDD on my old computer without SP1 and I had no problems and the best downloads ever. As my new computer is now working I am no longer concerned with this problem.

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