I have an Internet connection problem. My broadband connection randomly drops, and requires a reboot to reconnect. After it's dropped, the PC won't close down cleanly ? it hangs with a message ? Windows 98 is shutting down'.
Here are some more details:
I run Windows 98SE. The PC itself is by MESH, with a 900MHz processor & 128Mb of RAM. My ISP is BT Yahoo broadband. I connect via an Alcatel speedtouch 330 external modem. When the connection drops, both the green lights on the modem go out. The chipset on my motherboard is VIA Apollo KT133. I regularly run EZ Antivrus software, Lavasoft Ad-aware & Spybot ? search & destroy, none of which are showing anything significant ? no viruses & just a small collection of tracker type cookies. I regularly update all of this software. When I connect to the internet, then even without a browser open, if I monitor the status of the connection, I see data sent going up regularly at about 110 bytes per second or 1KBPS. Just prior to this problem arriving, I had my PC rebuilt because it was crashing randomly & with increasing frequency ? it's 4.5 years old. The guy who rebuilt it updated various drivers, including those for the chipset, to version 4.35 of VIA integrated 4 in 1 drivers. He also replaced an old CD ROM drive with a nice new LG super multi-DVD drive.
Here's what I've done so far:
Scanned Google groups for clues. The closest I've found is a problem like mine, but on XP, where randomly dropping the connection is caused by a virus (Blaster type, I think). I can find no viruses. Checked all the physical connections from the wall socket to the PC, including switching to use a different USB socket. Contacting the BT Yahoo helpline confirmed there was no problem with the line. However they did think it was caused by a motherboard problem. At this point I remembered the chipset upgrade & reset it back to the original version (VIA 4 in 1 V4.24). All of the above didn't seem to help. It was still crashing at anything from immediately after the connection was made up to a couple of hours. A friend lent me an identical Alcatel modem. When I connected this & rebooted, it went through its detection of new hardware routine, which surprised me. It also asked for the location of 3 files, so I found some on c:\\windows & directed it there. It now stays connected for up to 12 hours at a time. Coincidence?
I've now reached the extent of my limited technical knowledge. I'd be very grateful if anyone has any suggestions.