Illegal operation in IE 5.5

Hello.
I am getting an "Illegal Operation" error message while in IE 5.5 and browsing the internet. It happens several times a day now. Here is the details:

IEXPLORE caused a general protection fault
in module USER.EXE at 0003:00001022.
Registers:
EAX=00001967 CS=17c7 EIP=00001022 EFLGS=00000246
EBX=000012dc SS=1967 ESP=00008b26 EBP=00588b44
ECX=00011967 DS=1967 ESI=00008b50 FS=2957
EDX=00010118 ES=1967 EDI=0058dbd0 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
ff 5e 08 b9 cf 16 8e c1 59 5b 83 f9 0f 74 2e 81
Stack dump:
001af89e 0118ffff 01180bc8 16cf0bc8 0058dbd0 00008b80 02a00118 8b8002a5 16ef392d 12dc0001 0bc80000 ffff0118 000012dc 001af89e 01cf01be 0bc80000


Cany any one tell me what to do to fix this, have never had this problem ever.
Thanks--Gene

 

Hello Gene,

Look at this thread: http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21259

I think you're going to have to repair the OS the same way.

Regards - Charles

 

Thanks for the response. I did find out what was causing the problem. Apparently a file or entry in the "history" folder was corrupt. I had to go into a DOS screen and deltree the history folder (can't remember the exact thing I typed in) but it did work. It clears everything in the history folder, and I have not had another problem since. I might add that I did get my browser hijacked and didn't know it, so that probably caused it. I installed "Hijack This" and found it.
Thanks

 

Hi Gene,

Thanks for the reply.

To keep your home page from being hijacked again, look at StartPageGuard http://www.webattack.com/get/startpageguard.shtml

And keep the "clean" Hijackthis log as a base line.

You might also use:

SpyBot http://tomcoyote.org/SPYBOT/

Ad-Aware http://www.lavasoft.de/software/adaware/

If you do decide to use them, update both immediately.

Regards - Charles

 

Charles,
I HAD Start Page Guard and it was running when I got hijacked! I said HAD because it proved to me it does not work. I also do have (the free version) of Lavasofts Adaware and Spybot, and I have updated them. And I now have Spy Ware Guard and Spy Ware Blaster on duty to see if they work.
Gene

 

Hi Gene,

What SPG does on my system is that when the system boots up, that's when it checks the home page the user entered one and either asks permission to revert or optionally, to do so automatically.

On the few occasions that I had a hijack, did work for me, which is all I can say about it. Supprised to hear that SPG didn't do it's job in your case.

How did SSD and AAW perform?

Regards - Charles

 

I just installed them after the Hijack, so don't know yet until another attack. I have had Ad Aware, but since it is the free version it does not check incoming ad etc. it works good but only cleans after something has been added.

 

Genestoy--SpybotS&D has the Immunize feature, which when combined with SpywareBlaster, will catch most things before they infect your PC. That combo is free. Actually SpywareBlaster, by itself and free, will do most of that.