Internet Tips

Identify the Culprit

After you've determined that your software and hardware are up-to-date, check out your system by right-clicking My Computer and selecting Properties. Click the Device Manager tab and make certain that no red or yellow flags signal hardware conflicts.

Is it the graphics card? If graphics from Web pages have a smeared look, if pictures don't appear at all, if links vanish prior to a crash, or if your system locks up as you scroll down a page, your video driver or graphics card may be at fault. At the Performance tab, click the Graphics button and move the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left to slow Windows' use of your graphics card's acceleration features. This tactic may help if you encounter intermittent problems with your browser when it tries to display Web graphics. Slow acceleration to the minimum if you think your graphics hardware may be causing browser lockups. Slowing graphics acceleration may cause Web pages to appear jiggly as you scroll through them. But if this maneuver solves your problems, you need a new video driver or graphics card.

Another option is to temporarily configure Windows to use a plain-vanilla VGA driver. Double-click Display in the Control Panel, and in the Settings tab click Change Display Type. Under Adapter Type click Change, Show All Devices. Click Standard Display Adapter (VGA). If this cures your browser problems, a bad driver is at fault.

Is it the hard disk? Make sure you have enough space for browser caching--at least 10 percent of disk space or 50MB should be free. Start by getting rid of temporary files--you'll find them in c:\temp, c:\windows\temp, or both. Run ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter to clean up your disk. If you're using IE, consider deleting files from c:\windows\temporary Internet Files (that's IE's cache folder)--but be careful not to delete the cookie files.