Big problems! Can a bad DSL connection cause this?

[Blueshound]

Several months ago I installed a Speedstream DSL modem in my cousin's computer, a 2 year old HP with a PII 500. (she bought it on her own so I'm in the clear there) Her house is at the very outer limit of DSL service in this area. About 3 months ago she started having problems with her machine freezing up from time to time requiring a power off and reboot. She switched from McAfee Firewall and Anti-Virus to Zone Alarm and then finally installed Norton System Works and Firewall. The sporadic freeze-ups continued.

Two days ago, I was setting up my new workstation and needed to DL some files to update Office 97 for use on XP. Since I only have a dial-up connection, I used her machine to DL the updates and burned them onto a CD for transfer to my new machine. When I went to install them, several of the files were rejected as being corrupt. Re-downloading them on my dial-up connection and burning them with my old machine the files were OK.

Tonight, her computer froze up again but this time, when she tried to re-boot, the machine POSTed fine but couldn't find a system registry. I figure the OS has been trashed. A virus scan 3 hours before came up clean.

I got to thinking about the corrupt file downloads and wondered if the DSL connection or modem might be the problem. Is it possible that applications and updates that she downloaded were being corrupted and messed up the machine when they were installed? Has anyone else had a problem like this?

Tomorrow, I'm going with her to pick up a new HDD, install 2000 Pro and slave her old HDD to my old PC so she can retrieve her data when it's convenient. The thing is, I need to find out if it's the DSL connection that's causing the problem cause I don't want to have to do this again in 6 mos.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Frank T

 

[Blueshound]

Forgot to mention that we had high winds tonight that caused several quick power interrupts. My machines are on UPS, her's isn't.

 

[ojai00]

First question would be does she have a surge protector? You say the winds cause quick power interrupts. I think it could be the DSL connection mainly because the further away from the central service area (I forget what it's called...CLEC i think or something like that), you could be losing packets when you're downloading, hence causing corrupt files. It might also be bad clusters on the hard disk or heat related issues. Just double check everything. Hope this helps.

 

[Sofa]

Very doubtful that's it's the connection... DSL (and every other type of internet access as far as I know) re-transmits failed packets. DSL at the very outer edge of servicability is slower for this reason - if they try to set it faster, it winds up having to re-transmit enough that there isn't any point to it. Corrupted updates most likely wouldn't install in the first place... Sounds like it's just something wrong with the PC itself, in which case a lot more detail would probably be needed to home in on it.

 

[Kadarin]

I agree that it's most likely not the connection at fault. HTTP and FTP, the two common download protocols, use TCP as the Transport Layer protocol. TCP allows for error correction, and bad packets are resent. I'd look for issues such as bad sectors on the HD, a virus (update those virus definitions), or just too much crap installed on the machine.

-j

 

[Blueshound]

Well, to reply to ojai00's question, yes, she does have a surge protector. We're out in the boonies and the phone company's equipment is a little dated (e-mail server won't even handle case sensitive addresses) I think the limit is 15,000 feet from the CLEC and we are right at the 15,000 foot mark.

For a year and a half prior to moving out here, she was using a RoadRunner cable connection in San Diego with no problems. I un-installed and removed the Cable modem and the NIC card before installing the Speedstream to avoid conflicts. I believe the problems started right after she downloaded the McAaffee anti-virus software and it's been going downhill since. That's another reason I was asking about corrupt download files.

Astaroth33, yes, she is a garbage collector. Her desktop looks like 5th Avenue after a tickertape parade

Now I have to try to find out if her BIOS will support a 40 GB HDD. HP 8660c, if any of you know off hand.

Thanks for the input, guys.

Frank T

 

[ScottMac]

DSL is good to 18000 feet, the farther out from the Central Office (home of the "Competitive Local Exchange Carrier" (CLEC), the slower the connection will be. At 18000+ feet, you can still get IDSL, which is basically ISDN over DSL at 144Mbps.

I agree with the folks above that it probably isn't the connection (unless you're seeing the "link light" blinking like the connection is intermittent).

Please post the configuration of her PC. It could be anything from insufficient RAM to needing the OS patched (Win98 had some memory leaks). Try defragging her hard drive too. It's possible that a severely fragmented drive, coupled with marginal RAM quantity is choking the machine (buffer overflow while the drive searches for a spot to plant the data).

Good Luck

Scott

 

[Blueshound]

ScottMac,

The light doesn't blink. I think the solution is going to be installing a new HDD with either Windows 2000 or XP. I'll slave her old HDD so she can get at her data.

The only problem now is that ASUS has a new website and I can't get any info on the MEW-AM motherboard because the link to the Manual doesn't work. I checked Intel's website and found out that the 810E chipset will support 2000 and XP but, without BIOS info, I have no idea how large a HDD I can install without having to use disk mamagement software. I hate using disk mamagement software.

Thanks,
Frank T

 

[Blueshound]

Whoops! RAM is maxed out at 256MB so that shouldn't be a problem.