Joan; What are you doing when the freeze-ups happen. What happens if you click the button for DETAILS as to the cause of the problem? Freeze-ups and disconnects are probably two different issues. The freeze up and disconnects can occur at any time I'm on AOL, whether I'm reading mail, playing a game, listening to music, on a site with the grandbaby, any time. How much disk space and RAM do you have and what do the system reqs tell you about available resources? Sum of Hard Disks: (C,D) 149.04 GB Used 16.34 GB Free 132.69 GB I will get a note at the top of my monitor, next to AOL 9.0 Limited Edition, telling me "not responding". Some times it will free up and continue what I am doing, other times, I get a message that says we have encountered a problem and have signed you off. I get an option to restart. It just happened, I had Radio Margaritaville playing and was playing Poppit. I know, I need a life! "Your AOL Software has encountered a problem. We are automatically restarting to bring you back on line" "OK, Sign off or details". Details say unable to determine cause of shutdown. We're sorry, no additional details avail.. Then a message, we have restarted your AOL and you are back online. to disconnect, click sign off Also, do you know whether the disconnects are the fault of AOL or your DSL service provider? AOL generally isn't the problem with disconnects when you are bringing other service to access AOL. It is usually a problem with your service provider. I have a good way of testing this because I'm always logged into the RootsWeb IRC server which requires being able to connect with servers outside my own computer. If I get knocked off AOL (which is a very infrequent occurrence) and I'm also disconnected from IRC -- I know it isn't AOL's problem but rather Comcast. Looking at the lights on your DSL or Cable modem and Router can also give you a clue as to the source of the problem. It appears all the lights on my router are on. My husband has everything the same as I do, except I have MS XP Professional version 5.1.2600 and he has Vista and he doesn't get knocked off. Thanks for all your help. AnneMarie **************Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your budget? Read reviews on AOL Autos. (http://autos.aol.com/cars-BMW-128-2008/expert-review?ncid=aolaut00050000000017 )

Hi ISPs can intermittentently lose connection. Internet connections have a pre-set time before a connection loss actually affects the software. AOL techs said their "loss of connection" time-out is short---5 seconds, I think they said. But Internet Explorer is longer, so it keeps you "on" for a longer time (10-15 seconds) as though there's no interruption in signal---until IE realizes the signal is not "coming back" quickly enough. Then IE also drops/shows disconnection, too. If you have something like Time-Warner/Roadrunner, you may not see any loss of modem lights. You could ask your ISP to run tests on your modem. Ask about Packet Loss Ratio (a packet is how data is sent / received and should be pretty even-- if you are sent 5,000 packets you should get near to 5,000 received on your side). Ask about the test results for Flaps and Power... here I believe they need it under a total of 6 to have a good signal into your home---the closer to 0 (zero) they told me is perfect signal. Ask about "noise" on the line/modem. If your TV / modem are handled by the same ISP, you may see TV digital breakup before seeing any changes in your modem lights. With Time-Warner, I've had to complain a lot to make them fix outside equipment (ask they check the amplifier on the pole-- it's part of what they call the "drop" -- meaning where your account ties into the box at the pole). If you also have a box on the outside of your house, that is another "drop" and they should check all wire connections there. At the pole, and the box on the house, and at the TV, they should check signal strength. Digital TV works by sending first picture, then sound as an overlay... and data only on modems. So if anything interferes with data, data goes out first. Therefore, let's say your ISP has problems with its signal (from the office to the outside pole, then to your modem and/or TV), you will notice more problems as you increase your "demand" on any part of the service. So, less data is sent/received by sending an email. But if you add to the "demand" that you are listening to AOL Radio AND playing at a game site AND maybe have Internet Explorer window open in addition to AOL software, each of those increases the send/receive load required--- and if you already have "Packet Loss" or "Intermittent Signal Loss", the problems will magnify. All of this is in addition to what Joan was asking about:: How much free RAM do you have? (not hard drive size free, but RAM free) If you hold down ALT+CTR+DEL together & let go, it will open Windows Task Manager. This lists every "process" the computer is running (Tab> Processes). One Window of it shows Programs Running. If you click the heading "CPU" under Processes, it shows 2-digit numbers for how much drain is on the computer (the 2-digit numbers normally bounce around---as low as 00 to 99-100). When AOL is having any problems, it CAN max out CPU usage to 100% on processes. Idle System Processes for programs or things windows needs, constantly running in the background, also "eat up" RAM because of the processes demands. So what can you do? First, ask the ISP to look backward at your modem "history" for any loss of signal. Second, ISPs like Roadrunner have Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 techs-- ask for Level 3 and then, ask them to help identify IF any programs are eating up your RAM. BUT don't let a digital-ISP company walk over you-- signal loss, packet loss, high flaps, high power (all on modems) can interfere with Internet/AOL. Make sure the person looks at the 30-day modem history, NOT just that day's modem functioning. A modem can look "good" one day but be bad the next day. If you have a bad amplifier on the pole and it rains, it can mess up the signal, for example. Make sure they check the 30-day history before resetting a modem-- the history can be lost after a reset. Third, realize AOL makes huge demands on RAM. Games also. Radio or ongoing video (on Internet) are big draws too. Limit how much you "demand" from the system, especially on days you keep hearing AOL say "Goodbye...goodbye... goodbye" (ugh!) when it's losing the signal (from your modem/ISP). Fourth, you can "test" AOL versus the regular Internet to see if AOL is simply dropping you off when it detects low/poor signal. Remember, AOL will go FIRST before Internet Explorer. So you could sign up for gmail (Google Mail, free). When gmail detects signal loss, it pops up a box that says "We are unable to send Chats (or some such wording)." For me, I only get that box when the modem signal "disconnects" ---with Packet Loss, usually. So a quick way to see if the shut down is AOL-only or not is to open Internet Explorer to gmail account and if AOL says "goodbye" switch screens to see if gmail gives that No Chats message within a few seconds. If both AOL & gmail lose the signal, that points to an ISP/modem problem. Fifth, ask your ISP if it would help to lock your modem into searching on one channel only (this channel thing depends on your ISP). T-W goes to 13 modem channels, I believe. I think we locked mine to Channel 9. Otherwise, your modem could be "searching" for a signal and if the signal itself is the problem, the extra searching just delays things more. Broadband is not perfect. (I can only imagine the hell in Feb 2009 when TVs must all be digital ! The science is far from perfect now.) But if you complain loudly to your ISP and know some specifics to ask them to check, you might get someone to help you tweak settings and make connecting to AOL or to IE more tolerable. Judy On 8/6/08, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > Joan; > > > What are you doing when the freeze-ups happen. What happens if you click > the > button for DETAILS as to the cause of the problem? Freeze-ups and > disconnects are probably two different issues. > > The freeze up and disconnects can occur at any time I'm on AOL, whether I'm > reading > mail, playing a game, listening to music, on a site with the grandbaby, any > time. > > How much disk space and RAM do you have and what do the system reqs tell > you > about available resources? > > Sum of Hard Disks: (C,D) 149.04 GB Used 16.34 GB Free 132.69 GB > > > I will get a note at the top of my monitor, next to AOL 9.0 Limited Edition, > telling me "not responding". Some times it will free up and continue what > I am doing, other times, I get a message that says we have encountered a > problem and have signed you off. I get an option to restart. > > It just happened, I had Radio Margaritaville playing and was playing Poppit. > I know, I need a life! "Your AOL Software has encountered a problem. We > are automatically restarting to bring you back on line" "OK, Sign off or > details". Details say unable to determine cause of shutdown. We're sorry, no > additional details avail.. Then a message, we have restarted your AOL and > you are back online. to disconnect, click sign off > > Also, do you know whether the disconnects are the fault of AOL or your DSL > service provider? AOL generally isn't the problem with disconnects when you > are bringing other service to access AOL. It is usually a problem with your > service provider. I have a good way of testing this because I'm always logged > into the RootsWeb IRC server which requires being able to connect with > servers outside my own computer. If I get knocked off AOL (which is a very > infrequent occurrence) and I'm also disconnected from IRC -- I know it isn't AOL's > problem but rather Comcast. Looking at the lights on your DSL or Cable > modem and Router can also give you a clue as to the source of the problem. > > > It appears all the lights on my router are on. > > > My husband has everything the same as I do, except I have MS XP Professional > version 5.1.2600 and he has Vista and he doesn't get knocked off. > > > Thanks for all your help. > > AnneMarie