Can't close IE, tab & delete keys don't work

[Conrad D. Sirois]

Hi,

I'm stumped. My friend's IE _sometimes_ acts very strangely. The
symptoms are:
1) The tab key doesn't work.
2) The delete key doesn't work.
3) IE can only be closed by using the task manager. Clicking the 'X' in the
upper right, ALT-F4, ALT-F/C, and right clicking the program in the taskbar
and choosing 'Close' do not work. Even task manager is very sluggish and
seems to close the program only after some effort.
4) Cannot get downloads from the windows update site, as the site hangs upon
entering it.
Other than these problems IE performs normally. Rebooting will
sometimes clear up the problem, and on those occasions IE acts fine, with
none of these symptoms.

His computer is only a few weeks old, and Windows & IE were installed by
the manufacturer. He's running Windows XP Home & IE 6, and has an SBC Yahoo
DSL connection which works fine. I've installed all of the available
updates from MS (when IE was acting normally), hoping that would fix it, but
they made no difference.
I've seen a few other posts with the same symptoms, but no responses on
how to fix this. Can anyone help?
Thanks much!

 

[Mike Burgess]

Conrad,
The first thing to do is to scan your system for the possibility of
unknown\unwanted spyware or parasites that may be causing your problem(s).

Dealing with Unwanted Spyware, Parasites, Toolbars and Search Engines
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
_______________________________________
Mike Burgess http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Spyware, Adware, Parasites, Hijackers, Trojans, with a HOSTS file
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm [updated 9-26-03]
Please post replies to this Newsgroup, email address is invalid