IE and Firefox both stay blank, can still browse with explorer!?!

[Guest]

Here's my strange turn of events:

First, ram r&w errors led to quite a few problems booting xp. After no luck
with safe mode or the recovery console, I decided on a repair. The repair
"fixed" my booting problems, but then, IE just stayed blank despite saying
"loading" in the status bar. It seemed that the repair had partially
installed SP1 over SP2 as the Firewall settings and HTTP service could not be
found. So, I tried reinstalling SP2 but got an "access is denied" error. I
traced that to a partially installed printer driver problem and got SP2
reinstalled. Now, I have no problems with Firewall or any error messages
relating to HTTP service or IE. Now, however, IE and firefox both open fine,
but neither display web pages. They both "find" the page, and dns names are
resolves, but just sit on loading. FTP, and even HTTP d/ls work. File
sharing works, and, the REALLY wierd part, I CAN open and view web pages with
Windows Explorer! I'd really appreciate some help with this problem, as I'd
HATE to reinstall. Oh, and IE settings, router settings, and network
settings are all correct.

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

Here's my strange turn of events:

First, ram r&w errors led to quite a few problems booting xp. After no luck
with safe mode or the recovery console, I decided on a repair. The repair
"fixed" my booting problems, but then, IE just stayed blank despite saying
"loading" in the status bar. It seemed that the repair had partially
installed SP1 over SP2 as the Firewall settings and HTTP service could not be
found. So, I tried reinstalling SP2 but got an "access is denied" error. I
traced that to a partially installed printer driver problem and got SP2
reinstalled.

FWIW my experience with XP repair is the same--nonstandard drivers
and higher level versions of other modules caused it severe usability problems.

I suspect the repair may best to be done only to the version of the OS
that it was designed for. E.g. uninstalling XPsp2 and even XPsp1
may be advisable before using the repair from a base CD. Hopefully
users who have an integrated XPsp2 on their CD get a more reliable repair
(since they can't uninstall XPsp2.) Unfortunately I have seen no official
documentation which supports this speculation.

Now, I have no problems with Firewall or any error messages
relating to HTTP service or IE. Now, however, IE and firefox both open fine,
but neither display web pages. They both "find" the page, and dns names are
resolves, but just sit on loading. FTP, and even HTTP d/ls work. File
sharing works, and, the REALLY wierd part, I CAN open and view web pages with
Windows Explorer! I'd really appreciate some help with this problem, as I'd
HATE to reinstall. Oh, and IE settings, router settings, and network
settings are all correct.

I suspect you still have a mix of module versions due to the "repair".
One approach to dealing with that would be to visit Windows Update
and see if you are offered the latest Cumulative Security Upate for IE
since installing it could have the effect of A) getting a more consistent
set of modules B) getting those modules re-registered. If you do that
you can use any log files that procedure creates as clues about what
your module versions should be. If that is your objective it may be
worthwhile making sure that you use any possible verbose logging
options too.

Sometimes updates only occur partially, e.g., perhaps blocked by
third-party security programs such as anti-virus apps. So for that reason
you should check that the versions of the modules that you do have installed
(e.g. in System32) are the ones you are supposed to have installed there.
To assist this check you can Run...

msinfo32 /category IEFileVersions

If you already have the right versions of the modules they might not be
registered properly. Although XP no longer provides an IE Repair
(by default) you can simulate key subsets of it by individual regsvr32
commands. E.g. there is a list of them in KB831429. XPsp2 tried to
provide a stronger repair tool but it seems the implementation was botched.
To find more detail about that search my posts for references to ieuinit.inf


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
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