[Arin]

For some reason, I can't load a bunch of pages in IE any more. Sites including www.ntcompatible.com will display opening http://www.ntcompatible.com/ and then it will display Done with a blank page.

I have no clue why this is going on.

I have windows xp with sp2. I was thinking maybe I should try uninstalling IE and reinstalling it but I dont know how to do this w/ sp2.

Can anyone help? Thanks.

[American Zombie]

You could install IE again from the ie.inf that is in drive:\windows\inf folder.

Might be easier to just use IEFix.

[Sampson]

It also might be time to install BHODemon to make sure that you don't have some browser helpers gumming up your IE. It also would not hurt to run your anti-virus and spyware programs to see if something is amiss. The standard operating procedure for things like this is to delete your history files, cache, temp and cookies from IE. Finally, there is a file called Hosts in your system. If you are using XP it would be located here: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC
Examine it to see whether a trojan has rewritten it in an attempt to redirect your machine to their website and only managed to redirect you to a blank page.

[Cormac]

Check and see if you have a high setting on your cookies. Go to tools> internet options> then click on the privacy tab. If you have it set to high NT willn't display, the samething will happen to other sites also.

[Arin]

Well I ran through my check list upon first getting the problem:

Avast full anti virus scan with restart scan
Spydoctor full spyware scan with restart removal scan
hijackthis full scan and checked what was running
checked the hosts file (and all the files in there)
did a netstat -a
checked my running processes
deleted all casche, all temps, everything
went though and deleted old folders from old apps and mysterious looking applications
ran some other scans
reset to default settings
installed ie 7 beta (nothing really worked!)
went back to ie6
ran all the updates

And I guess now I'll try that fixer tool up above

[Arin]

IEFix didnt work.

Someone downloaded spyware from a website while using my computer the other day. I had disabled my virus protection earlier because I was restarting alot while trying to overclock the computer. Normally it would have never been able to run and install.

In the after fixing it, I did search around, deleting temp files and folders. I'm wondering if this had something to do with it not working. Seems to be the only logical thing.

[Arin]

I'm just downloading service pack 2 again... I'll try the .inf method of reinstalling IE6.

[Arin]

Ok, I got sp2 and extracted it. Now how would I go about reinstalling just internet explorer?

[American Zombie]

IEFix can reinstall Internet Explorer and make sure the dlls, registry entries are in there correctly.

Since you have the files extracted you could just point IEFix to that folder when it asks for CD.

[Sampson]

As a last resort, because winsock may have been damaged, you might consider Winsock XP fix: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/winsockxpfix.html

[packman]

Arin,

I've been having exactly the same problem, but it's occasionally been happening to one or two other sites as well.

Do you use Firefox 1.5? I think that, in my case, it's being caused by a serious bug in Firefox 1.5.

I'm using Win2KSP4.

[Sampson]

packman, are you sure that Firefox 1.5 is doing this? It is clear that all browsers utilize some of IE's components, basically because these are imbedded in the operating system, but cookies, temp files, history files - these are kept entirely separate. Are you running a proxy? Could it be your anti-virus? Or a spybot program like Pest Patrol excluding access? Do you have the Google tool bar on both browsers? It has been known to exclude webpages. You can bring up your task manager and see what processes in the background are being accessed when you change webpages and this can indicate when something is trolling and letting a webpage time out.

[packman]

I'm fairly convinced that Firefox 1.5 is responsible. I didn't have the problem with former versions of Firefox.

The day after I upgraded to 1.5, I started finding that, randomly, I couldn't get certain of my frequently-visited websites at all and Firefox just kept displaying the message "Can't access www.xxxx. Check ...., etc". It seems that once access to a particular website becomes impossible, you can't reach it with either Firefox or IE, unless you restart the computer. I checked with the editors of the affected websites and they said they knew of no such issues.

Then suddenly on one occasion, I couldn't access ANY websites. Firefox would open but no websites at all were resolved. Also, my e-mail client (OE6) became completely inoperative, with it unable to reach the ISP's servers. I checked the functioning of my router/nmodem and it was definitely communicating fine with the exchange and beyond. About 30 mins later, accessibility suddenly returned. I immediately contacted my ISP about it but my ISP confirmed that there'd been no problem at their end.

I'm now getting various websites inaccessible. It changes from time to time. Also, if I click on a particular website in the address box, I'll often get a completely different website. Still one that's in the box but not the one I clicked on.

I've no current issues with my software firewall or with my antivirus client. The event that changed and which produced the problem was updating to 1.5.

I'm still running Firefox with two profiles available, the original and a new one I created post-1.5. The problem exhibits with either one. Yes, I realise the profiles are not part of the core Firefox software. As for themes and extensions, I don't use any.

I'm encountering increasing numbers of people who are having similar problems to me. I'm personally convinced it's due to Firefox and that the Mozilla team need to tackle it as a priority.

[Arin]

winsockxpfix didnt work and I still cant get IEFix to reinstall ie. When it asks to point o the i386 folder of the xp sp2 setup, it just returns the error that the files are not found.

Here is what it says:

copying files window

files needed window
the file iexplorer.exe on the windows xp pro service pack 2 cd is needed.

I browse for that folder and the only file in there is iexplore.ex_


I hit ok and get a copy error window

setup cannot copy the file iexplore.ex_
please make sure the location of that file is correct, ect...

it is.
Doesnt work.
WTF?

[Sampson]

packman, have you "pinged" an internet address like www.google.com from the dos prompt when you could not get from your browser.
You could also try ipconfig (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/ipconfig.mspx) with all the variations to clear your dns.

[American Zombie]

Arin

You may be able to fix IE this way.

Start > Run > sfc /scannow

If not then try this:

Start > run > c:\windows\inf

In that folder browse to the file named ie.inf then right click on it and select install.

This should reinstall Internet Explorer.

I just checked in IEFix and pointing to the iexplore_ex works on mine. Files of type below it says it can point to iexplore.exe or iexplore_ex.

[Arin]

It just doesn't work for me and I don't know why.... I know I'm not doing anything wrong because I'm always right.

[Arin]

I really hate to say it but it looks like I may have to reformat. I had finally broken away from reformatting all the time. I thought I finally figured out everything... always fixed everyhing if there was a problem. I benchmarked regularly showing that even after running the same install of xp for over a year an a half that I was still running top notch.

Guess it finally shit the bed. :-(

Sigh, or I could just convert to, firefox....

[American Zombie]

You have a XP CD?

If you do then try a repair install which will re-install Windows but your programs will be uneffected.

XP Repair Install

After the repair you will need to re-install updates and/or service packs.

[Arin]

I'll try it. I have a legit xp pro cd from school.