Memory Problem?

[proudafwife]

Ok consider me computer illiterate when it comes to hardware. I know totally nothing. I have a Gateway 700mhz (yes its old),384 of ram, Windows XP pro. If you need to know anything else ask and I can try to find out. (told you...illiterate ) We got cable access over a year ago and the whole time we've had it the pc lite goes out after about anywhere from 5 minutes to 3 hours. Toshiba says it's in the computer. The cable company says its the computer. And Gateway says pay us $4 a minute and we may be able to tell you what's wrong. (warranty expired ) My brother works on computers and builds them but is in another state and cant help much. But he says it has something to do with my virtual memory. Which I really dont understand. I just reformatted my hard drive today and haven't even installed anything but my modem drivers to get online and it's already kicked me off line twice in an hour. I know there's nothing wrong with the modem since my husband got a new laptop last week and his stayed connected with my modem for a whole week without cutting him off. And I know it's not the cable. Any ideas on what I could try? Or what it could be? My husband is gone alot with the whole overseas thing going on right now and the internet is my only out from the kids at night. It's driving me nuts
I did check under the device manager and under the direct memory access controller it says driver not installed. Is there supposed to be? I'm so confused.

Vicki
~Learn from your parents mistakes.....use birth control~

P.S...if this is in the wrong forum I'm sorry. I didn't know which it would be since I dont really know what's wrong? :grind:

 

[proudafwife]

Yes...sorry

Yes it's a cable modem I'm sorry. It was late last night and I was half dead I think. The pc light on the cable modem goes out after a while. (time varies) It's a USB modem so I installed the drivers. There is no software. It's through comcast. I've talked to Comcast and they said it's a computer problem after they tried to help me on the phone for 2 days. Other than this problem with the modem the computer works fine.

 

[Erik]

Does the modem also have an ethernet jack on it? It would look somewhat like a phone jack except a little larger. If so, I would uninstall all the drivers for the modem that you have installed in your computer, and then go to the local computer store and buy an ethernet cable and plug the modem into your computer that way. Make sure your computer has a jack first. If not, then I don't know what to tell you. YOu could always buy a network card, they're only like $10.

When you use USB there can be quite a few problems with it, and it slows down your computer quite a bit, along with driver issues. Using ethernet is much faster, and it doesn't take any of your resources to run it. No drivers, just plug in the modem with the wire, tell your computer that you're on a LAN and then just go into i.e. or the IM programs that you use, no dialing or anything. Unless of course you have PPPoE.

When you get on the internet, do you have to give it a password? Or is it always on?

 

[proudafwife]

It's always on. I never have to give a password or anything.