Internet keeps freezing

Question

I have an eMac 1.25 ghz with 768 mb ram. I am running os x 10.5.8 and safari 5.0 I connect to Internet by a cable through my new time capsule. My Internet keeps freezing crashing the browser. safari and firefox are both effected. While this is happening I can access Internet fine with iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Any ideas? I also can't back up using time machine.

Answer 1

The first thing to eliminate is a serious manufacturing defect that affected eMac 1.25g units. See if your serial number fails in these ranges:
• G8412xxxxxx- G8520xxxxxx
• YM412xxxxxx - YM520xxxxxx
• VM440xxxxxx - VM516xxxxxx
If it does, your logic board could have a near-fatal problem. Your serial number is inside the optical drive door. If the unit is an Apple refurb, it will not be numbered in those ranges but could have the problem.
The logic board issue was mostly bad capacitors. You can see some through the RAM door on the bottom on the case. Here's a image showing a good and bad capacitor seen through the eMac RAM door:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/houlihan/146258714/
Apple had a Repair Extension Program to fix these at no cost to the owner but it expired over a year ago. Unless NZ has a law forcing manufactures to stand by products with manufacturing defects, you may be facing a repair whose cost exceeds the values of an eMac on the used market (needs a new logic board).
So we need to get this possible factor out of the way before trying to sort any software issues.