Windows 8/8.1 - extremely slow internet

[Qbah]

I know this sounds a bit lame... but I am out of ideas what to do... Just to start, I'm using an ethernet cable plugged into the ISP modem directly.

So, last year I bit on the cheap upgrade to Windows 8 for my desktop (I had a Win7 HP retail license). Did an upgrade and ever since everything has been running weird and slow... Often I'm getting "Connecting..." or "Resolving host..." hangs and "Page doesn't exist" in IE or "Oops..." in Chrome after a while. I refresh the tab a few times and then things are back to normal for a few minutes... then it repeats. Everything was working flawlessly under Win7 and still does on my smartphone (HTC One, before that iPhone 4S), my iPad2, my PS3 and my laptop (Thinkpad T400 with Win7). Excellent speeds and response times. It was ONLY the Windows 8 desktop that had this.

It has been driving me crazy, but since I just game on my PC, I wasn't really digging too much. Steam was working so I didn't care that much.

So now Windows 8.1 upgrade came out and I downloaded it from the Windows Store. And oh my god, I can't browse the internet for the life of me anymore 8/10 pages don't load and hang with "Connecting..." or "Resolving host...", I need multiple refreshes and I can forget about downlading files.

Thinking the initial installation last year was somehow borked, I downloaded a Windows 8.1 installation media from MS, put it on a USB stick and wiped my SSD (Intel 320 series). I did a fresh installation of the OS (Windows 8.1 Pro), installed just the nVidia drivers and nothing else and it's still happening! I mean seriously, WHAT THE HELL. I have a fresh OS install with just video drivers and I can't still browse the net ... once every few refreshes the browser manages to load the page. It's a nightmare to use.

Here's the craziest part - Spotify and Steam work fine, I can browse the store and download games at full speed without any issues. It's just the goddamn browsers (IE11 and Chrome). It's especially visible in IE11, as it's saying "Waiting for <URL>..." with a wheel turning... and then just says "Page does not exist".

Please help me out

Here's what I have:
Q9450@3.2GHz (tried stock, no difference)
8GB RAM (DDR2 800MHz)
Fresh OS install of Windows 8.1 Pro
OS SSD Intel 320 series 60GB
Game SSD Intel X25-M 120GB
Data HDD 1TB Samsung
Ethernet cable plugged directly from PC to ISP modem (no WiFi)

Again, Spotify and Steam work fine. The OS itself is fast and very responsive. Every other device on the network too. It's just my browsers. I just don't get it... :/ It's very very annoying, since I'm used to instant response times...

 

[Ketchup]

What board do you have? Based on your CPU, I am guessing it's about 5 years old. I am wondering if 8 doesn't have a good driver for your NIC. Might me worth looking to see if there is a more recent one out there (even Windows update may have one).

 

[Qbah]

Thanks. I downloaded the latest chipset package from Intel (didn't help). I also downlaoded latest Realtek drivers for the ethernet card. Didn't help either.

Again - the internet speeds are normal in the other things, like in the Video app when I rent a movie (HD plays instantly with no buffering), games on Steam download at full speed too... the apps work fine. I get this weird behavior in the browsers only...

EDIT: I get it also in the metro version of IE11. I just don't see there what's hanging the pages, but I assume it's also "Retrieving host..." or "Waiting for..."

 

[smakme7757]

Maybe it's a DNS issue in your router/Isp modem.

Have you tried doing a factory reset if possible?
Powering the unit down for a few minutes then turning it on again?

 

[Qbah]

Maybe it's a DNS issue in your router/Isp modem.

Have you tried doing a factory reset if possible?
Powering the unit down for a few minutes then turning it on again?

Thanks. I got a new router a while ago (had an old one before) and nothing really changed. Plus my other devices work fine.

Maybe I should try to use a different DNS server though... let me see if that helps.

EDIT: Reset the router and I'm not getting the hangs for now... but I'm sure they'll be back. My new modem is like 3 months old, I've been having this since day one of Windows 8.

 

[ViRGE]

I'm compelled to think that it's a networking issue rather than an issue with the computer itself, but weirder things have happened. I assume you have hooked up your laptop in a similar manner as your desktop, and it doesn't repeat the issue? And I don't suppose you have tried a different NIC, seeing as how your on-board NIC is Realtek?

 

[Qbah]

I'm compelled to think that it's a networking issue rather than an issue with the computer itself, but weirder things have happened. I assume you have hooked up your laptop in a similar manner as your desktop, and it doesn't repeat the issue? And I don't suppose you have tried a different NIC, seeing as how your on-board NIC is Realtek?

Thanks Virge! No, I did not try to use a wired connection in the laptop. I'll do that once the issue pops up again (everything still working fine after the modem/router reset).

And no, I don't have any other NIC, just the integrated one.

 

[Mem]

Thanks Virge! No, I did not try to use a wired connection in the laptop. I'll do that once the issue pops up again (everything still working fine after the modem/router reset).

And no, I don't have any other NIC, just the integrated one.

Hmm could be something faulty in the wireless part,I would try a USB wireless NIC ,you can get a cheap one for like $5 to $10 off well known sites and see if your wireless issues go away.

I've a couple of spare USB wireless dongles just for cases like this and usage as well.

 

[Qbah]

Hmm could be something faulty in the wireless part,I would try a USB wireless NIC ,you can get a cheap one for like $5 to $10 off well known sites and see if your wireless issues go away.

I've a couple of spare USB wireless dongles just for cases like this and usage as well.

My WiFi works flawlessly 5 devices using it (forgot about my Kindle last time). It's the desktop that's the problem (and it's using ethernet). My PS3 is also using an ethernet connection (plugged into the same modem/router as the PC) and it's is working fine.

Anyway, once the problem resurfaces again, I'll try to check with my laptop if it's behaving the same way.

 

[Mem]

My WiFi works flawlessly 5 devices using it (forgot about my Kindle last time). It's the desktop that's the problem (and it's using ethernet). My PS3 is also using an ethernet connection (plugged into the same modem/router as the PC) and it's is working fine.

Anyway, once the problem resurfaces again, I'll try to check with my laptop if it's behaving the same way.

So its your wired ethernet on desktop PC having the issue?..well try what ViRGE said,personally I would get a cheap pci NIC and plug it in and see if that fixes it,you could try different drivers I guess.

 

[LostHiWay]

I had the exact same issue with one PC. All other devices on my network (wired and wifi) were fine and getting my regular internet speeds (through speedtest.net). That one PC would only get 1-2 megs down, however upload would be fine. I tried just about everything as you did, however I ended up just doing a clean install and that fixed it. Weird I know.

 

[butubot]

browsers very slow but other apps that connect to the internet are all ok. did a safe boot with networking. browsers ran ok. rebooted the pc again -- back to normal.

 

[Qbah]

Heh, so I'm not the only one... What butubot describes is what was happening to me. All things except the browsers were working fine. It's the browsers that sucked bad.

Anyway, after the router reset, things are still fast and responsive. So far so good...

 

[labrekk]

Heh, so I'm not the only one... What butubot describes is what was happening to me. All things except the browsers were working fine. It's the browsers that sucked bad.

Anyway, after the router reset, things are still fast and responsive. So far so good...

Hello, this is my first post here. I had to register to tell that I also have the same damn problem with the browsers being very slow (Chrome, Firefox, Maxthon), while I can download at full speed with others apps (like uTorrent for example). This started when I upgraded from Windows 8 to 8.1 (64-bit edition) last Friday.

I'm on wifi with a HP H8-1010 desktop (http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/electronics/detail-page/hp/h8-1010_r2_js_04-14-11.pdf) .
I upgraded the power supply to a 600W, as well as the graphic card (HIS Radeon HD 6850) and added a dedicated sound card (Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD).

My router is kinda old (Linksys WRT610Nv2) but when doing speed tests with 3 laptops and this HP desktop (when I can access the site), I get what my ISP promised, 20 MB/s down and 10 MB/s up.

This slowness really blows. It comes and go. I can start browsing and all is lightning-fast, then it's becoming slow as hell with sites that don't want to open ("Retrieving host..." , "Waiting for...").

I just resetted my router and rebooted. Browsing was great for a few minutes but it started to suck again.

I first upgraded my laptop at work from Windows 8 to 8.1 and had none of these issues. This is a Lenovo Thinkpad X230T. This lack of issues motivated me to also upgrade my home desktop...

BTW, the slow internet was not the only problem. I got no sound at all from my Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD after the 8.1 upgrade. After many searches on the net, I had to install Pax Master drivers that I found on the HardwareHeaven site, which just saved my sound card.

So, this 8.1 upgrade has been bad news from the start...

Anyone has a solution for the browsers problem?

 

[Qbah]

No sound after upgrade to 8.1 when using Creative? Same here... Identical!! I just ripped the POS sound card out (X-Fi Titanium) and I'm using integrated. Honestly, Creative can go and DIAF - they'll never get any money from me ever again.

And whoa, another person with the same sounding awe issue. I'm sure it will come back for me, it always has. I'm just extremely busy during the week and don't have the time to sit at the PC anyway, so I'll know more in the weekend.

 

[ViRGE]

No sound after upgrade to 8.1 when using Creative? Same here... Identical!! I just ripped the POS sound card out (X-Fi Titanium) and I'm using integrated.

FWIW I have the same card; all I needed to do was reinstall the drivers.

 

[VirtualLarry]

About the browser problem: have you tried disabling IPv6 support and rebooting?

Note that you cannot simply uncheck IPv6 protocol on your NIC/connection property page in Win8/8.1, you have to use registry tweaks.

(Much the same as "powercfg -h off" to disable hibernation in Win7 doesn't work in Win8 either. MS just keeps breaking things.)

 

[labrekk]

No sound after upgrade to 8.1 when using Creative? Same here... Identical!! I just ripped the POS sound card out (X-Fi Titanium) and I'm using integrated. Honestly, Creative can go and DIAF - they'll never get any money from me ever again.

And whoa, another person with the same sounding awe issue. I'm sure it will come back for me, it always has. I'm just extremely busy during the week and don't have the time to sit at the PC anyway, so I'll know more in the weekend.

As I mentioned, you can install the drivers found there http://www.hardwareheaven.com/pax-d...d-suite-2013-v1-10-default-tweak-edition.html , which are a bit tweaked compared to stock ones and work great so far.

 

[labrekk]

FWIW I have the same card; all I needed to do was reinstall the drivers.

Didn't work for me, had to get the Pax Master ones I mentioned earlier.

 

[labrekk]

About the browser problem: have you tried disabling IPv6 support and rebooting?

Note that you cannot simply uncheck IPv6 protocol on your NIC/connection property page in Win8/8.1, you have to use registry tweaks.

I didn't know about this. Could you post a kind of detailed procedure in order for it to work? Thanks.

 

[Qbah]

The X-Fi thing... I was getting other issues (stuttering after waking from sleep a few times, sound muted at random too). All went away once I started using the integrated one again. I lost Crystalizer, sure, but that's a small price to pay for getting sound that just works (I hope I didn't jinx it...)

VirtualLarry - once it starts to slow down again, I'll try the registry tweak to disable IPv6.

Thanks!

 

[labrekk]

The X-Fi thing... I was getting other issues (stuttering after waking from sleep a few times, sound muted at random too). All went away once I started using the integrated one again. I lost Crystalizer, sure, but that's a small price to pay for getting sound that just works (I hope I didn't jinx it...)

I really like the Creative console, especially the Equalizer function, so the use of the integrated drivers was not a solution for me. So far, the Pax Master drivers just work great, you should get them a shot. I had never ever heard of them before getting no sound after 8.1 upgrade.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Could be your nic. I have a similar issue on my computer with windows 7 - it's either the onboard NIC or the power line Ethernet adapter. I'm leaning towards the nic since my printer in the power line adapter works fine. A wireless N wifi card fixes all issues.

 

[labrekk]

I didn't know about this. Could you post a kind of detailed procedure in order for it to work? Thanks.

Finally, I found an article on the net about IPv6 disabling, did what it said, and my problem seems solved, at least for now. Thanks.

 

[labrekk]

VirtualLarry - once it starts to slow down again, I'll try the registry tweak to disable IPv6.

Thanks!

Just wanted to thank you again for your advice to disable IPv6. I didn't have any problems since I disabled that IPv6, and it's been 5 days now. :thumbsup: