IE Freeze/BLue bar behind startup bar

[Adam A]

My Internet Explorer keep freezing and closing for no
reason. I downloaded ad-aware and have run many virus
scans and i still can't figure out why my internet is
always freezing. I use cable (Adelphia powerlink) for
internet connection. I have not yet tried mozilla or
another program but IE has always worked fine until the
past two weeks or so. Something is wrong. Also i have
windows xp home edition and right behind the blue startup
bar on the the bottom is another blue things that peeks a
little above this startup bar. I cannot click on it but i
know its not suppose to be there either. Any help be
appreciated.

 

[Malke]

My Internet Explorer keep freezing and closing for no
reason. I downloaded ad-aware and have run many virus
scans and i still can't figure out why my internet is
always freezing. I use cable (Adelphia powerlink) for
internet connection. I have not yet tried mozilla or
another program but IE has always worked fine until the
past two weeks or so. Something is wrong. Also i have
windows xp home edition and right behind the blue startup
bar on the the bottom is another blue things that peeks a
little above this startup bar. I cannot click on it but i
know its not suppose to be there either. Any help be
appreciated.

Hi, Adam. Unfortunately, since we can't see the "blue thing", it will be
hard to get you a specific answer. I would definitely download Mozilla
from www.mozilla.org and install it to at least test if your Internet
connection works with a different browser. If it does, then you know
the issue isn't hardware. Make sure your antivirus program is a recent
version (not earlier than 2002) and the definitions are updated.
Ad-aware is an excellent program, but is not enough to combat spyware.
Also run Spybot S&D from www.safer-networking.org, and possibly
CWShredder from http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/index.html . It is a
good idea to run virus and spyware scans in Safe Mode.

After you've tried the Mozilla experiment, if you still get freezes,
then perhaps your hardware is failing. That would mean you should swap
out cables, test your nic, have your ISP test the modem.

Malke