Neither IE6 nor IE7 will display pages

[Guest]

After using some system optimizing toolson Win XP SP2, IE6 will open a window
frame, but won't load any web pages. The progress bar indicates "loading" but
the page never displays. I installed the IE7 beta in hopes that would fix the
problem
but to no avail. My Firefox browser works fine, but I need IE functionality
for Windows updates and certain sites. Any ideas what may have happened?

 

[Phil®]

After using some system optimizing tools on Win XP SP2, IE6 will open a window
frame, but won't load any web pages. The progress bar indicates "loading" but
the page never displays. I installed the IE7 beta in hopes that would fix the
problem but to no avail. My Firefox browser works fine, but I need IE functionality
for Windows updates and certain sites. Any ideas what may have happened?

No idea what happened but more info might help.

What 'system optimizing tools' did you use and what functions did they perform.

You thought IE6 was broken so............ you decided to install IE7 beta over it.

Are you a beta tester?

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE]

After using some system optimizing toolson Win XP SP2, IE6 will open
a window frame, but won't load any web pages. The progress bar
indicates "loading" but the page never displays. I installed the IE7
beta in hopes that would fix the problem
but to no avail. My Firefox browser works fine, but I need IE
functionality for Windows updates and certain sites. Any ideas what
may have happened?

From http://www.fjsmjs.com/OE/nolinks.htm

1. Click Start, and then click Run.

2. In the Open box, type:

regsvr32 urlmon.dll

3. Click OK, and then click OK again when you receive the following message:

DllRegisterServer in urlmon.dll succeeded.


4. If that doesn't fix it, see this article:

http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/answers/26.html

5. If you are using WinXP try this:
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/reg/IE_Default_Browser.reg

6. See Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 1 may display a blank Web page
after you select Auto-Select encoding
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/870863

You can also try this:

Go to Start/run, and type SFC (msconfig for WinXP).
Choose 'Extract One File From Installation Disk' ("Expand File" for WinXP).
Type oleaut32.dll, not worrying about its location. Then, click Start.

Next to 'Restore From', type in or browse for the file's location, which is
probably in the Win98 (i386 for WinXP) folder of your installation CD-ROM
(typically D:\Win98), or in your Windows\Options\Cabs (Windows\i386 for
WinXP) folder, as the case may be.

Then, next to 'Save File In', enter C:\Windows\System (C:\Windows\System32
for WinXP), and click OK. System File Checker (or msconfig) looks for the
file, saves it as you requested, and then tells you that 'the file has been
successfully extracted'.

You may need to reboot.

 

[D H]

Frank, Thank you for helping folks out here! I've not needed to check newsgroups for a long while, mostly after getting a new machine with XP on it and having VERY few problems anymore, but this one hit me so hard it ALMOST stopped me dead in my tracks. I was about to totally format and reinstall because I couldn't figure out ANY way of fixing the troubles I was having. No internet access because IE wouldn't load anything but white page. No ability to "repair" IE anymore; was not allowed to reinstall windowsXP home because "your version is newer." (Of course it is, it's been updated beaucoup times!) Anyway, I really believe your advice to the OP is going to be repeated a LOT, based on what I saw on this group when I just came back to check it out. Seems like a lot of folks are getting hit by something that causes similar issues. I'll copy below what I responded to one earlier post, since it adds a bit more that may or may not be necessary to fix the problem, but might help if it IS needed.

I hope this helps: I had problem of blank
screen on EVERY IE window, all my windows Help & Support attempts, etc. I
finally was able to search via an old computer just before giving up all
hope of fixing this short of total format & reinstall of my otherwise
healthy laptop. Then I found article KB902932 online (search for this and
save the file; you may need it again!)

I tried the first section of fixes (re-registering 8 DLLs via the Start/Run
command) and it totally fixed my problems. I now am quite sure the problem
came as a result of the Optional software "Update for WindowsXP KB912945,"
done on my laptop on April 4th. The WindowsUpdate _History page_ shows it as
"installed succesfully," but it still shows as "downloaded; ready to
install" on the list of Optional Software Updates when I go to WindowsUpdate
now.

I did some checking and read the log file generated on my computer about the
KB912945 update (which apparently did install?), and noticed a correlation
between files it copied and the DLLs that had to be re-registered on my
machine to repair the blank screen and other problems. The following files
are involved with both the above mentioned KB articles:
urlmon.dll
shdocvw.dll
mshtml.dll
browseui.dll
In addition to these, 4 others have to be fixed, but I don't see them on the
log of the suspect update file. Maybe I'm grasping at straws, but the timing
of the failure and the fact that the History at WinUpdate saying it
installed successfully doesn't make sense when it still comes up as an
update to choose in the Optional Software section at the site, nor does it
make sense that it says it's already downloaded; ready to install.
I probably am going to gamble and download the full file separately from the
KB article page and try to install it manually from the Run command line. If
it screws things up again, I'll be back to fixing the DLLs again, but
hopefully it will work. I hope it was just a corrupted file that somehow
still tried to install itself.

I do hope this fixes your problems as well as it did mine. I think there are
probably going to be a lot of folks in our situation if MS doesn't catch
this quickly and correct what is going wrong, either with the download of
the fix or else in it's installation procedures, I don't know which.

Good luck to you (and all of us!)

 

[D H]

I have since my previous post installed the _manually_ downloaded file for
KB91945 and restarted. The restart failed on boot up, hanging with no
activity, so I forced a shut down and started again. All seems fine now as
far as browsing, accessing SystemRestore, etc.

At the WindowsUpdate site, it no longer offers the file under
OptionalSoftware updates, yet the History section shows it as having
installed on Apr 4, as before, though I know it was unsuccessful until just
now, Apr 8th.

At least it didn't mess things up again!


--
Reply to group. Spammers suck...
Off to ride the mountains, D H
Frank, Thank you for helping folks out here! I've not needed to check newsgroups for a long while, mostly after getting a new machine with XP on it and having VERY few problems anymore, but this one hit me so hard it ALMOST stopped me dead in my tracks. I was about to totally format and reinstall because I couldn't figure out ANY way of fixing the troubles I was having. No internet access because IE wouldn't load anything but white page. No ability to "repair" IE anymore; was not allowed to reinstall windowsXP home because "your version is newer." (Of course it is, it's been updated beaucoup times!) Anyway, I really believe your advice to the OP is going to be repeated a LOT, based on what I saw on this group when I just came back to check it out. Seems like a lot of folks are getting hit by something that causes similar issues. I'll copy below what I responded to one earlier post, since it adds a bit more that may or may not be necessary to fix the problem, but might help if it IS needed.

I hope this helps: I had problem of blank
screen on EVERY IE window, all my windows Help & Support attempts, etc. I
finally was able to search via an old computer just before giving up all
hope of fixing this short of total format & reinstall of my otherwise
healthy laptop. Then I found article KB902932 online (search for this and
save the file; you may need it again!)

I tried the first section of fixes (re-registering 8 DLLs via the Start/Run
command) and it totally fixed my problems. I now am quite sure the problem
came as a result of the Optional software "Update for WindowsXP KB912945,"
done on my laptop on April 4th. The WindowsUpdate _History page_ shows it as
"installed succesfully," but it still shows as "downloaded; ready to
install" on the list of Optional Software Updates when I go to WindowsUpdate
now.

I did some checking and read the log file generated on my computer about the
KB912945 update (which apparently did install?), and noticed a correlation
between files it copied and the DLLs that had to be re-registered on my
machine to repair the blank screen and other problems. The following files
are involved with both the above mentioned KB articles:
urlmon.dll
shdocvw.dll
mshtml.dll
browseui.dll
In addition to these, 4 others have to be fixed, but I don't see them on the
log of the suspect update file. Maybe I'm grasping at straws, but the timing
of the failure and the fact that the History at WinUpdate saying it
installed successfully doesn't make sense when it still comes up as an
update to choose in the Optional Software section at the site, nor does it
make sense that it says it's already downloaded; ready to install.
I probably am going to gamble and download the full file separately from the
KB article page and try to install it manually from the Run command line. If
it screws things up again, I'll be back to fixing the DLLs again, but
hopefully it will work. I hope it was just a corrupted file that somehow
still tried to install itself.

I do hope this fixes your problems as well as it did mine. I think there are
probably going to be a lot of folks in our situation if MS doesn't catch
this quickly and correct what is going wrong, either with the download of
the fix or else in it's installation procedures, I don't know which.

Good luck to you (and all of us!)