Occasional page cannot be displayed with google.com

[Darren]

I have an odd problem that happens almost every day. When my computer
is left running for a long period of time (like 15 hours or so),
google will stop coming up and I get the page cannot be displayed
error. When this happens I can still access any other site on the web,
it's only google.com that doesn't come up. All I have to do is reboot
and then everything works fine again, well at least for the next 15
hours or so. It seems to happen after the machine sits idle for a long
period of time, like when I come home from work, or if I leave it
running all night.

I'm using Win98 first edition and IE 6.0.26000.000. I have checked my
C:\windows\HOSTS.SAM and C:\windows\LMHOSTS.SAM files, but they are
both empty.

Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[Mike Burgess]

Darren,
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
--
You may need to clear your TIF as you may have a corrupt file there.

Close all instances of OE and IE
Control Panel | Internet Options | General tab
Click the "Delete Files" button, when prompted place a check in:
"Delete all offline content", click OK
Click the "Clear History" button, click OK.
Click the Settings button, adjust the TIF size to 50 mb, click OK

[more info]
Possibly your cache folder is corrupt:

How To: Delete the Internet Explorer Temporary Internet Files
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/delcache.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 9-30-03]
Please post replies to this Newsgroup, email address is invalid

 

[Darren]

Darren,
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

Hi Mike,

Thanks a lot for your reply. Is that your site? It is full of
excellent info. After dealing with the spyware I went through the rest
of your How To's and things appear to be running better now.

I ran SpyBot and was surprised to find so many problems. It has only
been a couple of months since I last ran ad-aware and already a ton of
new items were on my machine (aside from just cookies). So far, things
seem to be better overall, but it will take a few days to be sure that
the idle google problem has gone away. I'll post back later to let you
know the outcome.

Thanks again.

- Darren