Locking up & IE won't work

[D.H. Cesare]

I've been trying to help with a WinXP machine that locks
up when starting; has to be restarted 2 or 3 times to get there.
The machine is connected through a D-Link 655 router,
hardwired, with AT&T DSL service. A different computer
is connected wirelessly and has no problems. It's a new machine.

Besides the usual Windows features he has AOL installed which
is what he uses primarily. His Internet Explorer will not work.
When IE comes up it says page cannot be displayed and there's
a radio button "Diagnose Connection". When I click on the
Diagnose Connection button it comes back and says the
connection was successful, no problems.
http\\microsoft succeeded
https\\microsoft succeeded
ftp\\microsoft succeeded
When I "ping" Yahoo from the CMD window it says 4 packets
sent and 4 packets received. No problem. When I installed
Safari it worked fine, but the guy refuses to use Safari, he wants
his IE.

I've run scans with McAfee's Stinger and it removed whatever
it found. I've run 2 full scans with Ad-Aware; first scan found
9 objects which it deleted, second scan didn't find anything.
I installed SpyBot - Search & Destroy, but it won't run. There's
no problem installing it, but it refuses to start.

It seems there's something blocking his IE but I can't imagine
what it is. I've reset all IE settings back to the default settings.
And why does Safari and the AOL Browser work?

And why won't it boot up from the OFF mode without 2 or 3 tries?
It also locks up once in a while when being used.

Me and his computer need HELP.

Thank you.

 

[Richard]

I've been trying to help with a WinXP machine that locks
up when starting; has to be restarted 2 or 3 times to get there.
The machine is connected through a D-Link 655 router,
hardwired, with AT&T DSL service. A different computer
is connected wirelessly and has no problems. It's a new machine.

Hi "D.H. Cesare",

What edition and service pack level of XP? (SP1, SP2, SP3?)
(Home Edition, Professional, Media Center, x64, Tablet PC?)

Desktop or Laptop computer?

At what point does it lock up?

Any complete error messages?

Besides the usual Windows features he has AOL installed which
is what he uses primarily. His Internet Explorer will not work.
When IE comes up it says page cannot be displayed and there's
a radio button "Diagnose Connection". When I click on the
Diagnose Connection button it comes back and says the
connection was successful, no problems.

What AOL version? What Internet Explorer version?
If IE8, was previous IE working before installing IE8?

http\\microsoft succeeded
https\\microsoft succeeded
ftp\\microsoft succeeded
When I "ping" Yahoo from the CMD window it says 4 packets
sent and 4 packets received. No problem. When I installed
Safari it worked fine, but the guy refuses to use Safari,
he wants his IE.

Does his IE have a Yahoo toolbar? Any other addons?

I've run scans with McAfee's Stinger and it removed whatever
it found. I've run 2 full scans with Ad-Aware; first scan found
9 objects which it deleted, second scan didn't find anything.
I installed SpyBot - Search & Destroy, but it won't run. There's
no problem installing it, but it refuses to start.

Sounds like malware is keeping you from completely cleaning the computer.
Try re-naming the SpyBot executable to Sneaky.com and see if it will run.

Possibly some DLL (Dynamic Link Library) that IE uses got "deleted"? You
might want to run System File Checker. (It takes about half an hour.)

To run SFC, it is best to close all open programs first and then:
Click Start, click Run, type or paste next line and press Enter:
sfc /scannow

Free Malwarebytes anti-malware (Install, update, run full scan.)
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool
http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx
You may need to download the MSRT to your computer, rename "MRT.EXE" as
"ScanThis.exe", copy to infected computer and run the FULL scan.

More complete malware removal guidance:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

It seems there's something blocking his IE but I can't imagine
what it is. I've reset all IE settings back to the default settings.
And why does Safari and the AOL Browser work?

When connected through AOL, IE normally works fine with that connection.
Check your Internet Options, Connections (tab). What do you see there?

In the Control Panel Add/Remove Programs, "Set Program Access and Defaults"
applet, under default Web browser, what does it say there?

And why won't it boot up from the OFF mode without 2 or 3 tries?
It also locks up once in a while when being used.

Does the computer connect to the internet while booting? After you get to
the desktop, check Event Viewer for events with times during/after startup.

Start> (all)Programs> Accessories> System Tools> Event Viewer

Have you tried starting in Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking?

Me and his computer need HELP.

Thank you.

The bottom line: HELP your friend make backup copies of all Valued Data on
the computer to external media while you can still access the computer.

(You're welcome.

- - -
FYI: Usenet newsgroups are plain text groups. Your Outlook Express is using
"Quoted Printable" format with HTML for messages. That causes problems with
some newsreaders. Also, your message was routed through highwinds-media,
google, giganews, and t-online.de (Germany) before arriving back here at
news://msnews.microsoft.com. You might want to link directly to msnews.
(No chain is stronger than its weakest link.
- - -
Proper Outlook Express settings for newsgroups:
Click Tools, click Options, click Send (tab)
Under News Sending Format, select Plain Text
To the right of that, click Plain Text Settings (button)
Under Message format, click Uuencode
Click OK, click OK.
- - -

(Triple click here, to be of good cheer.
--Richard