well - maybe not completely - but a lot better.

I would have had nothing to do with it. Beyond Jesse, I don't even know if DS knows I exist.

The credit would entirely go to Jesse.

You are very kind to comment though.

it is??? then is something wrong with my computer??? oh no!!

I take it back - it's as slow as it was before. We just had a momentary reprieve.

I don't know WV - I think you just might pack more of a punch than you know.:)

I know that the members have a lot of faith in you.

Not wanting to take away all the great help we get from WV, Jesse and you too Linda Jean...........but I having more trouble tonight than ever before. :-((

I've found that when I get tired of waiting for posts to go through I am clicking on the X out and trying again. And that's how I finally got here. lol.

I keep thinking it's my computer......but I don't think so.

I don't know if I can explain all this, .. but gonna give it a try:

As we all know, .. the DS problem is either our computers or DS or BOTH. We cannot do anything if it is DS. We can do something if it is our computer ... OR BOTH ... and that is fix whatever could be wrong with the computer.

There are hundreds of ways to TRY to fix a 'sick' computer. The most CERTAIN way is to put it back to the day you bought it.

This is what I will try to explain. When it came from the manufacturer, it was all 'set up' and ready for use. It already had a lot of 'stuff' on it. The manufacturer ensured you could always go BACK to that point with what is known as a 'factory system restore'.

What they do is set aside a small section of your hard drive and put an IMAGE of the factory condition in that section. This makes it pretty easy to restore TO FACTORY. Factory is considered to be 'pristine'. That is the good news.

The bad news:
Doing a factory restore will do JUST THAT ... put it back to the day you plugged it in for the first time ... PRISTINE. That means, you will LOSE everything you have put on it since you got it .... pictures, videos, account information, saved passwords, SOFTWARE UPDATES ... NOTHING you put on it will be there after the restore is done ... but it will be PRISTINE.

Sooooo, the trick is to restore to factory, and from some kind of OUTSIDE storage ... put back on top of that all YOUR stuff.

There are a lot of ways to do that.
1. Make a list of all your user account IDs and passwords (don't forget any WIFI passwords you use).
2. Save a copy of all your browser bookmarks (export them to a FILE.) pictures, videos, documents, ETC. to something .. DVD disk(s), thumb drive, or a CLOUD service.

A cloud service is a "hard drive" OUT ON THE INTERNET which holds your files for safe keeping. There are many free ones ... but the free accounts are limited in capacity. Depending on how much 'stuff' you have ... you may need SEVERAL different free accounts or one PAID account. I know of one which is 10GB for free ... or INFINITE for $10 a month ($120 a year) or a whole year at once for $99. Not bad at all for INFINITE storage capacity. PM me if you want the website.

CLOUD services require a BROADBAND connection ... don't try one if you have DIALUP (few people do anymore).

In any case ... once you have your files 'off premise' ... you can then do the factory restore. When that is complete, I guarantee you will have no computer problems ...... it will be PRISTINE but in great need of UPDATING ... all your original software that came on the computer ... Windows updates, other software updates (such as certain security packages) etc. Any software you UNINSTALLED since you bought the computer will need to be UNinstalled again. Some software packages you have installed may require a 'product key' . be sure you have those keys written down somewhere.

The goal ... start with a pristine machine .. update it, then put back the stuff you have installed or created since you bought it.

It IS a big job ... to make sure you don't lose something of value to you. You must be certain you have all the 'restoration' info you will need as well as the 'files' you have created/added since you bought the computer. The BIGGEST risk to this is ... you do a factory restore to find out you DON'T have something you need backed up and still available to you anymore.

Conversely .. if you DO have your 'data' secured, this is the best way (and the quickest way) to get yer 'pooter 'fixed' ... it can't GET fixed any better than FACTORY restored.

If you want some help/tips on doing this .... PM me ... and I will answer whatever questions you may have.

Why doesn't DS JUST put itself back to its pristine condition!? LOL!!

I'm hardly about to do all that to my computer just to see if it will help with the current DS problem, but I have copy and pasted WV's post into my Gmail (which is safely stored somewhere 'out there.')

Hahahaha!!! I have a label -- WANDERING VET -- for all my self-sent Gmails that are copies of helpful advice that WV has posted!!!

Thanks for all the help, WV!!!!
As always!!!

(I'd say, 'No wonder I want to do him first', but people might take it the wrong way!!!)

Great advice as alway's, WV.

That is alot of work but probably worth it. BUT!!! If we do all of that....and it's not our computer.............what do we do to improve DS??

I don't think that having a pristine computer should keep me from getting alert's here. My computer was in the shop in April of 2012 and it came back pretty pristine to me.

And I'm thinking when I say "computer" - I really mean internet as it is soo screwing.

LOL. Eulen, why would anyone EVER take anything you said the wrong way?? I got it! You want to read him first with the answer.

Not everyone's mind is in the gutter. Weeeell..........yes, they are.

It's still cute and still helpful.

I'm with Eulen.

Restoring a computer to factory condition is a total pain in the ***, especially if it's much more than a few months old.

In this case, I won't be 'fixing' my computer because DS since it's the ONLY site I have issues with. And since DS has admitted its having problems, there's no way I would go thru all the effort until I knew for sure it wasn't DS. Of course, that's just MHO.

Doing a full restore like that is not only time consuming but aggravating as well.

WV explained the process very well:):)

I've had to do that only a couple of times and to say it was aggravating is putting it mildly.

I know it's not my pc, every other site I go to loads fast and easy, it's only here that I have problems.

What strikes me as wierd though is that I never have trouble, (once I'm allowed on) is getting to this board!!! It loads instantly!!!
One other board also loads with no problem but overall, it's slower than a snail on ice:(:(

Maybe DS is planning a huge 4th of July celebration by having everything up and running???
IF that happens, I'll be 29 yrs. old again:)::)

Will there be access to the DS site once the DS computer has been reset to the factory setting upon purchase? If it is pristine it sounds like there is no way we can access DS until the problem is fixed and everything put back on the computer of DS making the DS computer as nonpristine as it is now when the problem is fixed.

I bought a new computer.. I can tell you it's not the computer.. Once I get on it goes quite well.. Thank you for the information WV.. I will use that information in the future.

There are other less difficult things you can do. For example, clear your cache - all the tracking cookies and suchlike which websites store on your machine. There are different ways of doing this depending on the machine/device/browser you have. On IE for example go to tools > delete browser history and a menu comes up where you can select what you wish to delete. Usually you need to just tick 'temporary internet files' and 'cookies', and make sure the box to preserve bookmarks/favourites is ticked too.

Or you could try different browsers - internet explorer, firefox, google chrome.

Or you could check the speed of your internet connection - because it could be DS or your machine but it could also be the internet connection between the two. Google 'check internet speed' and some websites will come up.

These sorts of things are important to do anyway whether DS or other sites are running slow or not.