Computer lock up when refreshing servers...

[.jackson]

Ok to set this straight I have had this problem for ages now, its only become a problem when opening steam, since for some reason recently whenever I have opened steam it has automatically started refreshing servers.

The problem is, when I 'refresh servers', this is on ALL games btw my computer locks up and acts like the CPU is at 100% but its not, which is the wierd thing.

I have an NTL:200 box, Nvidia nforce4 ethernet (running NVFirewall) @ 2MB connection.

I have researched the problem and found this;
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_...4487-YUOC-6922

Now that indicates its my box, granted its out-dated but I know of a few people that have/have had the same box without this....do I need to upgrade it somehow?

I know "192.168.100.1" accesses the settings on my box to see if anything is wrong there, but I dont know the username/password which hasnt been changed so should be default hopefully if anyone knows them.

Thanks for your help

---------- Post added at 17:36 ---------- Previous post was at 17:28 ----------

Update: password/username is root (found where I had written it down).

No link to update it anyway so...

[trevortt]

When you say locks up, do you mean that the computer freezes and you have to re-boot?

Also, post your full system specs?

[.jackson]

No it doesnt crash completely, my computer just goes really....really.....really slow. I mean Steam takes about 10-15 mins to respond and thats not an exaguration.

AMD64 4200X2 @ stock clocks
A8N-Sli mobo Nforce 4
2GB (4 X 512MB) OCZ PC3200 platinum ram
BFG 8800GTX OC2
Antec neopower 550W PSU
500GB maxtor maxline III HDD
X-fi soundblaster fatality pro sound

[trevortt]

How many processes are you running in the background (not with steam on), press ctrl alt & del and then goto the processes tab & then look at bottom left it will tell you amount.

Have you scanned your pc for viruses, adware, spyware, malware, have you defragged your hdd?

I would recommend using this tweak guide to knock some stuff off to give u a boost in performance.

[.jackson]

Everything is running fine mate, I did all the maintenance (deep virus/spyware scan and HDD defrag not so long ago).

It only happens when refreshing servers, once my computer stops refreshing them it all goes fine and dandy again, playing COD4 maxed quality atm easily on high fps.

But tbh I have always had this problem, its only started bugging me now because steam and any HL2 mod such as team fortress 2 for some reason refreshes the servers when I go on the game (which is never used to do), and it takes about 10-15 mins for my computer to respond at that point because of the amount of time it takes to get to the server list menu and press stop.

[DaiNasty]

I'd be inclined to try that registry tweak on the link you posted. It sounds like the updating is taking all your cpu cycles so everything grinds to a halt.

Bringing the 'caferate' down as they suggest might help to make it more of a background task.