50 second delay

I have a new computer with XP Pro with an AMD Opteron 165 (at 2.5Ghz), 2Gb
RAM and DSL, and all had been fine until I installed a game, Age of Empires
III. Now I have a delay problem with IE and OE, and other progs. The game
works fine. But the game has instutited some changes that have caused this.

Some progs that use my DSL for updates, like AVG, do so without delay. IE
opens but the window and address bar are blank for 50 seconds, then it
connects and displays the homepage. OE opens with the inbox contents will
not connect for 50 seconds (set to send/rcv upon opening). CCleaner will not
even open for 50 seconds. Also, once one of the delays is satisfied, the
others will work fine until I reboot. Pointer still moves.

I have tried closing a lot of running programs in Task Manager but that did
not make a difference. I have tried uninstalling Age of Empires but that
also made no difference. I called MS Games but they said it is not the game
"Oh, no, not us... can you hold for 2 minutes..." . Maybe not, but it did
not do this before I installed it.

Also, another odd thing is that sometimes, just before the stall period ends
and the point turns into a blinking hourglass, I get a very fast tiny notice
by the Systray that says "you are at risk... no firewall has been
activated". But, my MS Firewall IS activated. I recativated the nVidia
firewall but the delay persists

I am not sure where to even start with this one. Your help would be most
appreciated.

Thanks, Lar

"Larry B" <lbblock.TakeThisOut@hatepsam.gov> wrote in message
news:u1s8RR35GHA.3404@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>I have a new computer with XP Pro with an AMD Opteron 165 (at 2.5Ghz), 2Gb
>RAM and DSL, and all had been fine until I installed a game, Age of Empires
>III. Now I have a delay problem with IE and OE, and other progs. The game
>works fine. But the game has instutited some changes that have caused
>this.
>
> Some progs that use my DSL for updates, like AVG, do so without delay. IE
> opens but the window and address bar are blank for 50 seconds, then it
> connects and displays the homepage. OE opens with the inbox contents will
> not connect for 50 seconds (set to send/rcv upon opening). CCleaner will
> not
> even open for 50 seconds. Also, once one of the delays is satisfied, the
> others will work fine until I reboot. Pointer still moves.
>
> I have tried closing a lot of running programs in Task Manager but that
> did not make a difference. I have tried uninstalling Age of Empires but
> that
> also made no difference. I called MS Games but they said it is not the
> game "Oh, no, not us... can you hold for 2 minutes..." . Maybe not, but it
> did
> not do this before I installed it.
>
> Also, another odd thing is that sometimes, just before the stall period
> ends and the point turns into a blinking hourglass, I get a very fast tiny
> notice
> by the Systray that says "you are at risk... no firewall has been
> activated". But, my MS Firewall IS activated. I recativated the nVidia
> firewall but the delay persists
>
> I am not sure where to even start with this one. Your help would be most
> appreciated.
>
> Thanks, Lar
>
A little more info:

I did a System Restore and though it messed up the game, the computer worked
fine. Then I reversed the restoration and the computer worked great until I
played Age of Empires III once. Then it started over again. Lastly, this
delay is causing the Local Connection (DSL via ethernet wire) icon to appear
in the systray (about a minute). After I boot up and wait a minute for this
icon to appear, everything is fine after that... until I reboot again. Lar