dell laptop gone lethargic.. keeps crashing... not happy !!

albertross_2

Have a look to see if you are running out of physical memory, or have a process hogging the cpu:

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/processexplorer.html

Does it have wireless built-in, if so and you are not using it, turn it off.

Browntoa

I'm still convinced it this current that you are drawing from the motherboard to power all the devices

they use the BT modems like the Voyager 105, they were usb hungry beasts

which modem did you get ??

you bombed out again did'nt you !!

pennymakespounds

albertross .... the bottom of that download page .. shows 4 versions . which do i need ?

wireless ..... don't use it ... i think it's got it .. how would i know ... how do i turn off ?

browntoa .. yes that is the modem model i've got

albertross_2

http://www.sysinternals.com/Files/ProcessExplorerNt.zip

Go into control panel, networks, find a wireless adapter, right click and disable. Do the reverse if you ever need to re-enable it. Alternatively, sometimes there is a hotkey combination, Fn + F? to turn it off as well, not sure which F key on that model, but it will have a wireless legend if it is there.

Ever thought of getting a wired or wireless router, it would help with the usb power problems if that is the root cause of your issue, and also make internet use a bit safer from port scanning.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=2301531&postcount=10

pennymakespounds

you mean normal control panel from the start button .. in network connections it shows as lan or high speed ....

local area connection 2 .... connected
1394 connection .... connected ...
local area connection ..... network cable unplugged

make sense ?