One to sink your teeth into

[Old Enough]

As far as I can reason out this problem, it is Windows related.

I have a D-Link WBR-2310 router. Two desk-tops computers (both
Windows XP SP2) are connected to the router using a cable and D-Link
DFE-530 Ethernet cards. I also have a lap-top and a Palm TX PDA,
which connect to the router wirelessly.

The DSL modem and router are never switched off; the two desk-tops are
switched off overnight.
The desk-tops, as soon as they are switched on, and the various
start-up programs are loaded, are on-line right away (or at least,
they used to be).
Both immediately load The Weather Network's "Weather Eye" and a
mail-checking program (MailWasher Pro) - or, at least, both used to do
this.

PROBLEM: One of the desk-tops now takes several minutes to go
"on-line" from start-up.
There appears to be no problem with the modem-router combination,
since the other units either are on-line, or immediately go on-line
(in case of the PDA).
There is no updated driver for the D-Link DFE-530 Ethernet card
available - it is a Windows XP included driver.
I have un-installed and re-installed the driver using the Device
Manager.
I have switched ports on the router.
My machine is clean (I think). I update SpywareBlaster weekly, I
update and run SpyBot S&D and Adaware weekly, I run AVG (free edition)
daily.

Could my Ethernet card have gone defective? It seems to work great
once it kicks in (now, usually several minutes after start-up). My
download speed is very good - no changes over the last few years.

Any suggestions or help would be appreciated - I'm at the end of my
(short) rope.
If any details regarding my equipment are significant, and I haven't
mentioned them, please ask.

Thanks again!

_________________________________
Old Enough
to know I don't know a thing ....

 

[Byte]

Check your Startup, you may have added some unnecessary apps.
Start>Run>type MSCONFIG>click OK>click the Startup tab. There
you can uncheck/disable apps you do not need to load at startup.
Apply>Close and reboot.

 

[Old Enough]

Check your Startup, you may have added some unnecessary apps.
Start>Run>type MSCONFIG>click OK>click the Startup tab. There
you can uncheck/disable apps you do not need to load at startup.
Apply>Close and reboot.

Thank you, Byte, for your response. I don't think that's the problem,
though.

I use a little program called "Start-up Manager", and I know each and
every program that starts, and why.

Incidentally, I don't see the Ethernet card anywhere in any start-up
files. What tells it to start functioning after the computer starts?

Thanks!
_________________________________
Old Enough
to know I don't know a thing ....

 

[Nih]

by "going on line" do you mean they show up in the system tray next to the
clock? This has nothing to do with your ethernet card.

Do you mean it takes a few minutes to get on the internet because your
computer is taking so long to finish booting up? If so then you have
something running at startup that is slowing down the process. What do you
currently have checked off in the "startup" tab of msconfig? (start > run >
msconfig)

Try disabling the things you have running at startup and see if your startup
times get better, try one by one to see which one is the culprit.