Pages won't load after intensive CPU use

[vacanthead]

I've had this problem on and off for a week or so now. In my Win XP boot, after intensive CPU use (ie gaming), if I try anything online I get connection problems. I can connect to my ISP, but Internet pages won't load (the old 404 error) and my email cannot connect to it's relevant servers. This happens even if I know those pages are in the Temp Internet files folder. If I reboot and go straight to IE6 or Outlook Express, no problem. All other programs function just fine, it's just these server problems. Any ideas? I haven't tried in Win98 yet, possibly tonight.

[Statica]

Do you still have an IP address after your gaming session? It might not be related to the CPU use. You might just be dropping your IP. Try checking on that.

[morriswindgate]

Go to the link below and page down until you get to the subject line,"Reduce DNS errors in Windows 2000/XP." There you will find a registry script to download and install (Click On It) that will help you with this problem. A removal script is also available farther down in this subject.

http://cable-dsl.home.att.net/

[vacanthead]

Thanks morriswindgate, I'll give it a shot when I get home.

[vacanthead]

update:

Well I d/l it, installed it and rebooted, but it still happens. The actual error mesage is the 'This webpage is temporarily unavailable blah blah blah' not Error 404 (sorry, I started the thread at work). Like I said, this also happens in Outlook Express, it is unable to find any mailbox servers, even though the connection is intact.

[vacanthead]

Sorry to bump this up there, but this is still happening and is really bloody annoying.
BTW forget about it being related to CPU use, it's probably just conicidence I try to go online after a bit of gaming.

[Statica]

As I'd asked, have you checked if you have an IP address?
Various network devices use the CPU to varying degrees for their functioning. The rule of thumb being that the better the network devices use less of the CPU than the worse ones. For example softmodems use more of the CPU than hardware modems. Same thing goes with good network cards vs bad ones. The knock on USB network devices so far has been that they draw too much power from the CPU. It is possible that if your CPU is already overworked it might drop its ipaddress (or connectivity) when you don't use it.

[vacanthead]

You know, I didn't. What command do I run to find out? I can't remember.

[glc]

In 98, it's start - run - winipcfg. In XP, open a command prompt, ipconfig/all.

[vacanthead]

Thanks glc, I remember for 98 now. Didn't even know for XP.

[vacanthead]

OK, same thing happened, not after gaming this time. Came straight home from work, fired up IE6. Nada. Checked IP address is AOK.

[Statica]

Originally posted by vacanthead OK, same thing happened, not after gaming this time. Came straight home from work, fired up IE6. Nada. Checked IP address is AOK.

Is your IP set to acquire dynamically or statically? Make it dynamic if it was set as static for the aforementioned test.

Ok how about this as a trial to at least try to narrow down whats going on. Open up a commandprompt in XP (START > RUN > cmd) and type: ping www.yahoo.com -t
Dont close the CLi window .. now start your game and play and put the CPU to a test. Close the game when you feel that normally your connection shouldve gone kaput.

Then see what the dos prompt output is:
Is it still getting a reply or has it dropped packets?
Press CTRL+C to stop it, and check the packet statistics.

Btw .. did you check the situation with Win98?

[vacanthead]

I don't think it's game related now. Like I said, I came home from work, fired up IE6 and same thing happened. Didn't even start my game. Haven't tried in 98 yet, I hardly ever use it nowadays. Often my modem has problems connecting 98 in the first place. I'll try the ping test anway.