Cannot open anything with IE - it tries to download

[Guest]

I have a workstation with W2000 Professional SP4 that I just had to reinstall
Windows due to some file corruption that prevented it from booting.

I know that IE was working right after the reinstall of Windows, but
sometime later in the day things went wrong. Now when I try to launch IE (as
ANY user logged into the machine), within a couple of seconds of its main
window opening, a download dialog appears which is then followed by an error
dialog with a message saying that it cannot download "/" from the homepage
URL.

If I try to launch it using a shortcut to some other URL, the same thing
happens, specifying the alternate URL in the error dialog.

If I try to launch it from Explorer by double clicking on an HTML document,
the same thing happens, specifying the document in the error dialog.

I can launch IE from a command window with the following:

C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe -nohome

Once started, if I enter any URL or try to select any favorite, I get the
error again.

One thing I have noticed: if I right-click on the desktop shortcut and
select Properties, the dialog that opens only has these property pages:

Security
Connections
Programs
Advanced

On every other system, the pages are:

General
Security
Privacy
Content
Connections
Programs
Advanced

Why are General, Privacy, and Content missing? I suspect the reason is
related to the other problem.

Cal.

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

Hi Cal,


Thanks for disclosing your OS and for your clear problem description.


What kind of "file corruption" did you have? If it was caused by a virus
you may need to investigate that possibility using an Anti-virus program.

Alternatively if it was caused by a hardware problem you should investigate
that possibility first too. E.g. perhaps use chkdsk or something stronger
for doing hardware fault diagnosis.


Otherwise, on your OS I would try an IE Repair (ref KB194177)

E.g. Run... (press Win-R and enter

rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE6Maintenance


If it doesn't result in a rebooted system it doesn't get to the repair phase.
In that case you can look for clues about what is wrong in its log file:
Fix IE Log.txt


A repair has the potential for fixing the symptom with inetcpl.cpl
that you are describing but be aware that if it was caused by "malware"
(e.g. third-party add-ons with ulterior motives) any repairs may quickly
be undone by them, so any lasting fix would necessarily involve first
getting rid of the cause of the problem symptom. See others' posts
about detecting and getting rid of spyware, malware, etc. for details
on doing that.


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Strangely, the problem has disappeared and IE is working fine again, though
I will keep your information about IE repair for future reference. I have no
explanation of why it happened nor why it no longer is a problem.

As for my original corruption, I am reasonably sure it was not caused by a
virus or some sort of malware. I recently added a second DIMM to this machine
and found there to be something problematic with it once it warmed up that
caused the PC to go into a reboot.

After doing a number of tests with and without the new memory module, one of
the reboots resulted in what I believe was a corruption of a system file that
then caused a reboot just after the "Windows 2000" splash screen had its
progress bar reach 100%. THIS reboot was consistent, regardless of memory
configuration, and it even occurred if I tried to boot in safe mode. I had no
way to boot the machine, except from the installation CD-ROM.

Cal.