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@davidmeado wrote:
 I have also reinstalled WinMe but i am not sure if i did this correctly. help please!

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Forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but if you have the system in front of you and aren't sure, how would anyone here be sure?    Did you follow the instructions for formatting the drive (i.e., wiping it clean) and then reinstalling ME, or did you simply reinstall it over the top of itself (and any driver or hardware problems that might be present)?  Did you disconnect printers, scanners, cameras, etc., prior to reinstalling (and as is recommended), or did you leave all those devices attached?

When you got cable hooked up, were you still working with the original installation of ME, or had it been reinstalled recently?  While MS and Dell would sometimes like to have us believe that an OS installation can last forever, in the real world, that's hardly the case, particularly with Win9x (98/ME) operating systems.  Depending on what one does with a system, a clean installation (properly performed) might be necessary on more than one occasion.  While cumbersome, it's one of the easiest ways of resolving glitches for which there is no evidence that hardware might be responsible, but it has to be done by the book.

That being said, you're almost certainly better off with a network card and non-USB connection to your cable service, so you're on the right track there, but before you can determine whether the cable has anything to do with your recent problems (highly doubtful), you need to be sure you have a properly installed and functioning OS.  I'd also recommend refraining from tinkering with third party applications like Norton System Works, unless you're intimately acquainted with what these applications do to a system, and how.  Windows ME should work reasonably well on that system (XP would work better), and the cable connection simply shouldn't have any bearing on performance.  In every instance I've seen, cable connections work far better and produce far fewer system slowdowns/unexplained glitches than any dialup connection, so in theory, the system should be working better than in did before...assuming your OS and drivers are properly installed.

You might want to think about taking the system to a local repair shop for a proper reinstallation of the OS and drivers, if you're unable to get things installed properly on your own.  In earlier times, I'd have recommended having Support walk you through the process by phone, but since home support has been outsourced, that is no longer the safest or easiest way of doing things.  By the same token, if you follow the Reinstall Guides instructions (Solutions tab above) for formatting your hard drive and reinstalling your OS to the letter, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to do this on your own, but if you skip or miss a step, you'll wind up in exactly the same situation you are at the moment.

http://support.dell.com/SoftwareReinstallGuide/Results.aspx?CatID=0&OSID=44&SysID=DIM_PNT_CEL_L___CX&_ctl69.x=30&_ctl69.y=9  Reinstall Guides - Dimension L___cx, Windows ME

http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?DN=1036680  Specific guide for reinstalling ME - note that in the first part of the article, it states that "This article assumes that your Dell system is using the same configuration as when purchased. This article also assumes your system's hard drive has been prepared (formatted) for a clean installation of Windows."  Also note that "Dell recommends that you disconnect all peripheral devices except the Keyboard, Mouse, and Monitor of your Desktop Computer prior to installing the operating system."  If you haven't updated the BIOS to the most recent version available, I'd recommend doing so, prior to reinstalling WinME.

 http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?dn=1011783  Instructions for properly formatting the hard drive, prior to reinstalling the operating system.