IE cannot browse, everything else is OK and connected to network

[Guest]

Laptop Compaq nc6000, Windows XP SP2, IE 6.0. Latest security updates loaded

Same thing happend a few weeks back and only a complete re-imaging of the HD
was able to recover then. Up to last Friday night everything was OK. All
network applications were fine (Outlook Express, Quicken, Internet Explorer,
Chat on AOL Yahoo and MSN, etc). Then I decided to clean up and defrag the HD
since I was running out of space. Did the following steps:
-Cleaned all caches
-Compressed unused files
-Uninstalled BlueTooth since I don't have the hardware installed on my
laptop. The Bluetooth SW was installed by IT at work as part of the image for
this laptop
-Uninstalled Norton GoBack (damn it, worse timing ever.....) since it was
taking 4Gb of HD.
-Reduced size of Recycle Bin
-Performed a Scandisk and then Defrag.

First time I tried to browse with IE, it just sits there with the spinning
icon, but no page is ever downloaded. If I open a local file, it works fine.
Every other network application continues to run fine on the internet. DHCP,
DNS are fine.

-Ran Webroot, Spybot and Ad-Aware. No spyware found.
- HijackThis did not surface any unknown entry
-Ran SP2 update again, reboot, no change on the IE behavior.
-Installed Nescape from our office network and it is the only functional
browser I have now. (I'm using Netscape to write this post)
-Cannot run Windows Update since it only runs on IE online
-Re-installed the BlueTooth software and drivers to check. No luck.

I've noticed several other postings with similar behavior where IE suddenly
stops downloading websites.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Claudio

 

[Guest]

By the way, I also did:
-reset all IP configuration (IPCONFIG)
-reset all Sockets

Again, everything else is working fine online, just Internet Explorere has
stopped browsing. I also get no website if typing the address on File
Explorer.

I have Norton Anti-Virus and Webroot running continuously. I can de-install
Webroot, but cannot take NAV away (company policy.....it requires a password
to de-install).

Similar thing happened a couple of weeks ago. I don't want to re-image the
whole HD again!

 

[Don Varnau]

Hi,
Can you do a System Restore to a point before the problems started?

Plan B... try IEFix from http://windowsxp.mvps.org/IEFIX.htm

Hope this helps,
Don
[MS MVP- IE]

 

[Guest]

Don, great suggestions!
I tried IEFix with no luck.

I had never used System Restore before 'cause I always had it off to save
disk space (foolish of mine!!). I turned it on a few weeks ago when I had
this issue the first time. I forgot I had it available now and also didn't
know how to use iteither. Went to microsoft.com to find out. I had three
restore points for last Friday:
3) after removing Norton Go Back
2) after removing HP Bluetooth
1) standard image by Friday mid-afternoon

I returned to (3), and IE was still not responsive. I then returned to (2)
and it started to work fine again. Norton Go Back is installed again on my
system. I guess that means that Norton Go Back is the bad guy in the story!?
I'll try to find a way to remove it without damaging IE. At least now I know
how to use System Restore. Great tool by the way.

Thanks for the tip.
Claudio