Browser and eFestivals

[Rufus Gwertigan]

Hi Neil,

I have real issues with the forums on my PC (which is old but hey hum). When I try the forums with IE (my preferred browser due to uni work) it just freezes up. I have tried Firefox, which I am on at the moment but the forums are still slow to respond and scroll etc. On both it does take ages for the ads to load up, and that is usually the point when IE freezes up.

I have McAfee for security, could that be the issue? Are the forums configured for a particular browser? What would be the best browser? Would a subscription help? I have considered one for a while, but at the moment 18 quid up front is a hard sell. I use my phone most of the time, but it is hard to keep up with the threads on it.

I apologise if it is just a shit pc but I am a bit of a Luddite when it comes to these things, although I should know better by now

[eFestivals]

Hi Neil,

I have real issues with the forums on my PC (which is old but hey hum). When I try the forums with IE (my preferred browser due to uni work) it just freezes up. I have tried Firefox, which I am on at the moment but the forums are still slow to respond and scroll etc. On both it does take ages for the ads to load up, and that is usually the point when IE freezes up.

I have McAfee for security, could that be the issue? Are the forums configured for a particular browser? What would be the best browser? Would a subscription help? I have considered one for a while, but at the moment 18 quid up front is a hard sell. I use my phone most of the time, but it is hard to keep up with the threads on it.

I apologise if it is just a shit pc but I am a bit of a Luddite when it comes to these things, although I should know better by now

As far as i'm aware the forums aren't designed for any particular browser, but having said that I'm not sure how well they'd work with IE6 or earlier (or a browser made by a different company which has the same level of internal features). Then again it can't be too bad I guess else people would have let me know by now (lots of work computers still use IE6).

I doubt it's McAfee that's causing the problem directly, tho of course it adds and extra layer of processing to anything you do which does slow things down.

A subscription would help because your PC would be doing less if not getting and loading the ads, but whether that 'help' would be enough for your frustrations with the forums to go away I've really no idea. If you like we could give it a test so that you can find out before spending money?

The 'best browser' for the forums would be the newest version browsers that exist - but how well those browsers would work with a very old PC I've no idea.

You don't say what spec your PC is, how old it is, or what version browsers you're using.

But the PC I'm using is not a hi-spec or new PC - the PC is 7 years old, and was a cheapie when bought (about £250 if I remember rightly). Windows tells me it's a Pentium 4 3GHz with 2GB of RAM, and I run the latest version of Firefox (v15.0.1) for my own browsing .... it's not as fast as I might like, but neither is it dreadfully slow.

If the forums have only recently become slow on you, can you give me an idea of the date for when? That way I can check to see whether that matches with a change that might have been made with the forums.

Outside of that, I can only guess that there might be an issue of some sort with your PC.

[Rufus Gwertigan]

Its a 2.2 ghz AMD with a gig of Ram. I use IE8 and I had just installed the latest Firefox. It is hard to pin a date down but it was a month or so ago. IE is the real issue but in saying that if I stream radio while using IE I get a lot of interruptions so I an thinking it is partly my pc. When I click on the forums the content loads instantly but I sit for ages waiting for the ads.

Thanks for the offer of a test run on the subscription. Someone poured wine on the keyboard last night so the pc is out of use. Once that is sorted I will get back to you if I may :-)

[eFestivals]

That's a pretty low spec PC, so i doubt it's ever going to be fast.... and fast-ish loading forums but slow loading ads does sound like the graphical wants of today's ads might be more than your PC can comfortably handle.

One thing I can suggest you try tho is clearing the cache - because the most recent change I made (that had rabid and greenfairy complaining about slow) was a little less than a month ago, and it involved some changes to the forums skins, including images being pulled from a different server to where they were. It's possible that this change might have upset your browser's cache for some reason, and clearing the cache might sort it.

[Rufus Gwertigan]

I will do. Thanks for the advice. :-)