IE Help Needed

[Wes Bischel]

I'm hoping one of you computer gurus can help! The other night my IE stopped working - kept hanging when I tried to log on. I dumped the cookies and cache and rebooted and got things working somewhat - wouldn't bring up certain sites like eBay, but others worked fine. Now it hangs no matter what.
Weird thing is, on my wife's log-in (the unit runs XP) everything works fine. What could be the problem? I figure it's something simple, but I'm not saavy enough - or smart enough to know what.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Wes

[Wes Bischel]

Uh oh - I guess it's more serious than I thought. I was hoping for a "click this box dummy" kind of response - but since there haven't been any responses, I figure it may be a bit more complicated:(
There are days like today I wish I understood this blasted thing - it seems more like voodoo to me though.

I'll keep on pluggin' away - worst thing is I guess I could uninstall/reinstall. Or buy a new one.;)

Wes

[Scott Donley]

Wes, when all else fails, run system restore to a date before you started having the problem. If that works then run your virus and spyware programs. Good luck :mad:

[Michael Ballent]

Just download Firefox through your wife's account on XP and try to install it from her login. You could also try to download Spybot and AdAware spyware checkers from your wife's login and try to run it from her account. :D

Alternately you could download the installation packages onto CD and then install it on your PC if all else fails :D (AKA Sneaker Net)

[Daniel Heine]

I second the Firefox suggestion. I stopped using IE about 15 months ago. Forefox is much better at keeping harmful data from rntering your computer. It's a free download at http://www.mozilla.com.

The next step would be to go to:
http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/download/
This is the download page for A Squared free anti-virus software. A Squared does a great job, and it will cost you nothing.

Good Luck,
Dan Heine

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Uninstall and reinstall Then form now on use Firefox.
IE has serious issuess regarding your privacy.

IE is a virus, worm, and trojan attractant if used with outlook it's like chumming for hungry sharks.

IE and Netscape both sell data to makerting people regarding each and every transaction you make online. IE also collects information they won't tell enyone about.

Firefox is a superb browser and it's free. They have an e-mail client called Thinderbird it's great also.

Check 'em out.

IE is good for a few things like when you log to the Symantec site to do a virus or worm clensing or on some sites designed by damn fool web developers who thing they really needed the intensive level of active X controls manipulating your PC that only IE will do.

[Michael Gibbons]

Wes, turn the PC off , turn back on , go to programs;then click accessories, click system tools, click defragment disk, when that box comes up clickdefragement. Should take anywhere from 10 minutes to.... depends on how much stuff is on your pc. try that let me know if that works . Sometimes the stuff on you hard drive gets seperated and mixed up ,defragmenting the drive puts everything back in order. Thats what I do when my unit is acting up.


Mike

[Wes Bischel]

Wow, thanks for the advice! I've been busy banging away on this electronic anvil, so I haven't had a chance to thank you until now.
Here's where I stand:
Still have the problem

Tried the following:
System Restore - (I think that's the "click here dummy" thing I was looking for) Went a week before the problem after attempting a restore for the day before.
Defrag - one file said it could not be defragged - 5MB and had temp internet files in the listing, but I cannot find it.:mad:
Spybot scan - all clear
McAfee virus scan - all clear

The systems on my side that are down have some linkage - IE, windows explorer, McAfee Security Center won't come up, Help and Support won't load either. Everything else works fine. And each of those programs work fine on LOML's side of the computer.

Thanks again for the help - I'll keep pluggin' away.
Wes

[Michael Ballent]

Do you have the latest version of SpyBot? I kept running into problems and I kept running SpyBot and it said everything was hunky dory... The did some searching and found out that there was a new version of the application that I downloaded... Ran the Spybot and it located some bad stuff... then I downloaded AdAware and ran it. AdAware found things that SpyBot did not identify.

So the moral of this story ;) make sure that you have the latest verison of the spyware software and make sure that you run different S/W packages to pick up what the other guys missed :D

[Wes Bischel]

Michael,

Thanks, yep, there was a newer version of Spybot available. I had done updates on it, but there was a 1.4 version versus the 1.3. I also added another couple adware programs. Also found out that McAfee was playing games with permissions and when our license expires.:mad: I suspect their little programing games and the fact that the firewall wouldn't load the new license properly (and didn't tell us) caused the problem, or at least allowed it to happen.
I'm getting Firefox up and running as well. I'll see how I like it. So far it seems to be fine.

Thanks again everyone for your help. I think I still have a ways to go to clean things up and get new virusware/firewall, but I think we're on our way.

Wes

[Vaughn McMillan]

Wes, turn the PC off , turn back on , go to programs;then click accessories, click system tools, click defragment disk, when that box comes up clickdefragement. Should take anywhere from 10 minutes to.... depends on how much stuff is on your pc. try that let me know if that works . Sometimes the stuff on you hard drive gets seperated and mixed up ,defragmenting the drive puts everything back in order. Thats what I do when my unit is acting up.

Mike
Mike, defragging your disk is a good habit to be in, but a fragmented disk wouldn't cause the "disappearing applications" symptoms that Wes described. Defragging can cure a sluggish machine, though, or keep it from getting sluggish in the first place. (BTW, good to see Wes' system is on the way to recovery.)

Wes, the 5MB Temporary Internet file that remained fragmented on your system is likely a hidden file that you can't see unless you're running as Administrator on the computer (assuming you're running Windows XP or 2000). A 5MB fragmented temp file won't cause any performance issues that you'll be able to measure. Nothing to worry about whatsoever.

- Vaughn

[Disclaimer: I have been in the defragmentation business for about 15 years. There's a lot about computers that I don't know, but I do know fragmentation and its effects. ;)]

[Vaughn McMillan]

...IE and Netscape both sell data to makerting people regarding each and every transaction you make online. IE also collects information they won't tell enyone about. ...

Um, Cliff...do you have any links for a source on that comment? (I prefer Firefox too, BTW.)

Remember folks, not everything you read on the Internet is true.

- Vaughn

[Wes Bischel]

Oh, geez, sorry Vaughn, I am remise in saying thanks for your input - it did put me at ease.

As an update, I dumped the McAfee and got AVG plus Firewall - first scan caught a trojan horse!:mad: I also started using Firefox instead of IE. I figure I'll need to uninstall IE since it still isn't working on my side, but other than that, everything seems to be OK. Then again, it could be the calm before the storm!:D

Thanks again to everyone that offered advice and help. It saved me a bunch of time and money having someone else attempt to fix it.

Wes

[Neil Gentry]

Wes, turn the PC off , turn back on , go to programs;then click accessories, click system tools, click defragment disk, when that box comes up clickdefragement. Should take anywhere from 10 minutes to.... depends on how much stuff is on your pc. try that let me know if that works . Sometimes the stuff on you hard drive gets seperated and mixed up ,defragmenting the drive puts everything back in order. Thats what I do when my unit is acting up.


Mike

I was having the same problem. It was caused by a windows critical (security) update. I uninstalled the lastest update and it worked just fine again.

[Tom Stover]

Wes, you need to keep IE because some web pages and sites won't work on firefox.

[Curt Harms]

Wes, you need to keep IE because some web pages and sites won't work on firefox.

and when I find a site like that, I let the site's publisher know. Just got an overnight letter from a division president at Honeywell saying they're working to implement W3C standards.:)

Curt

[Wes Bischel]

So far I've been lucky and haven't run into any problem pages. I know it will happen though.:rolleyes: Neil, thanks for the heads-up, I'll go back and take a look at that. Right now I have just about everything set to "ask first" before accessing the web. That way I figure I'll at least know who has done what, when and to whom.

I bought a couple copies of AVG w/firewall and so far like how proactive it has been. This compared to McAfee that we had to manually run scans and updates (could have been settings). I also like that AVG will run the scan in the background (which it is doing right now) without a noticable drag on the computer. (I got the scoop on AVG by searching SMC posts:) )

Thanks again for all of the help. It's good to know so many are willing to share their smarts so freely on a topic not related to WW.

Wes

[Andy Fox]

I'd recommend ZoneAlarm Anti-Spyware (http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_zaas.jsp?dc=12bms&ctry=US&lang=en&lid=ho_zaas). It includes a good firewall. The basic firewall is what I use, and it's free.