DIGIT-ARC read-only archive · snapshot: July 23, 2026

Internet access kills win xp

3 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/internet-access-kills-win-xp.13040/

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AlienTech Original post #1
Jul 23, 2005 at 2:06 AM
I am not sure what exactly the problem here other than it is Internet access related and I am not a newbie but I am stumped here. I just got a new machine AMD3000+ and installed WIN XP and SP2 but not all the newer updates since the machine gets the blue screen of death if I do.

And I have a few windows opens with java applets and stuff streaming all kinds of data. But it seems when I go to another site it exceeds something and the system comes to a stand still. The CPU performance usage goes to over 90% from under 5% normally and stays there. I can shut down all programs and windows and it still stays 60% or higher. So something in the operating system is going in a loop. But I can still get fast downloads like before using the cable modem 64K. It is just that the rest of the system is really sluggish.

Does anyone have any ideas? I am sure this is one of the microsoft hacker hole patching problems they have introduced since it has never happened before.
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Jul 23, 2005 at 2:09 AM
Oh yea, System Idle process still shows up as 80-99% in task manager and no process is taking up more than 1-2% CPU resources. Except the performance tab shows 97% red as in the XP kernel is thinking of something real hard.
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Jul 23, 2005 at 2:27 AM
Okay problem solved :) It was the network adapter drivers. So I am not sure of the fix other than using a different network adapter. I just swapped the network cable from the adapter I was using to the second one which I use to connect my laptop and the CPU usage went back to 10% or so.

Now to go see if MSI has a driver for this RTL8139 chip that works any better...

Seems this is a common problem... //The problem was in my network adaptor. // After Win XP SP2 updates. Some security fix they did affects some of the network drivers.

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