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February 23rd, 2022 07:00
Impossibly slow internet on one computer only
Hello, running an Inspiron 3670 for several years without any issues, now the internet is basically unusably slow. Keystrokes take almost 30 seconds to appear. I have a DSL connection in a small business office and the other machines breeze along beautifully as usual.
I ran Dell Diagnostics and it wanted to install an updated driver for video, and now I have the MOST ALARMING screen with the image of a rusty pipe with a valve and a scrolling green progress indicator type image, though that has been going along for almost an hour without change. I almost shut the computer down when the screen went black and that image appeared, but I looked it up on my phone and this is apparently legit. Now thinking of shutting it down because it seems stuck in this diagnostic loop.
No other programs run slow on the machine except internet, and diagnostic for the network/internet tell me that I am "connected to the internet" and everything is fine. I have rebooted the modem and cleared cookies, cache and I delete temporary files a million times a day, since that sometimes speeds things up.
I updated from Windows 10 to Windows 11, thinking that might help but there is no change. Is there a way to determine if a specific program is corrupted so I can uninstall and reinstall? I hoped Dell Diagnostics would do that but so far it isn't finding anything specific. Appreciate the help!
RoHe
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45.2K Posts
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February 23rd, 2022 17:00
Are you using WiFi (either Killer or Intel or Dell or Qualcomm WiFi card) or Realtek Ethernet (hard-wired) connection from this PC to your router/modem?
When was last time you scanned this PC thoroughly for malware? Malwarebytes (free) would be a good tool to use.
Are all the drivers up-to-date?
What version of BIOS is installed? v2.21.0 is the latest version.
Have you looked in Device Manager to see if anything "Unknown" is listed and/or something is marked with either a ! or an X ?
RoHe
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45.2K Posts
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February 23rd, 2022 17:00
And see this thread too...
Eauxlivia
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February 25th, 2022 06:00
Thanks so much for your suggestions - I have done absolutely everything, even switching to another antivirus program and running that, updating my drivers, using a PC cleaner type program, clearing the cache/temp files, uninstalling unused programs and deleting files, rebooting the modem (ethernet connection), etc.
I am happy to say (preliminarily, at least) that I checked out my devices, and discovered an exclamation point associated with my little scanner. I had trouble with it about 3 months ago (computer not recognizing it) so I updated the driver, and that may be when things began to go downhill with my internet speed, now that I look back. I uninstalled this device completely, including the bloatware that comes with it, which took almost all day using PC Cleaner to help with the leftover files, etc. After I did that everything is running smoothly and no issues at all.
Thank you, Ron, for suggesting I take a look at my devices. That seemed to be the entire problem. Now I need to reinstall that scanner, which I use regularly, and will do so carefully to be sure it is clean.
I really appreciate your help!
RoHe
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45.2K Posts
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February 25th, 2022 11:00
Glad you got it working properly again!
When you reinstall that scanner, make sure all its software (listed on Startup tab in Task Manager) and associated services (listed in services.msc) don't load automatically every time you boot the PC. They will still be available when you manually launch them, but they won't be hiding in the background and messing things up.
And after using the scanner, if something like internet has a problem, just do a Restart and the scanner apps won't be loaded automatically so -hopefully- everything is back to normal.
Also consider using Revo Uninstaller (free), if the need arises. It uninstalls apps very quickly and then shows you all the leftovers which you can quickly tell Revo to delete. NOTE: When Revo starts an uninstall, be sure to accept its offer to create System Restore point before uninstalling anything, to be safe...