I am at a loss here.

I am running Windows XP and have BT Broadband.I have had this setup for just over a year and had no problems at all until a couple of months ago.
What has been happening is.......I open Internet explorer and my home page (Google) opens with no problem but EVERY other page I try to open goes to that White page telling me to try refresh.Sometimes i get the site loaded after pressing refresh as many as 10 times but more often than not it still won't open at all.
The first time this happened I came on here and someone suggested I run sfc /scannow which I was told would repair files needed by IE.I did this and it seemed to work.I had no more problems for about 4 weeks until last night when the only page I could get loaded was Google.I tried the sfc /scannow again but it did not make any difference this time.I tried opening some web pages again later and at first it was just the same then suddenly everything started to work properly again.I am happy it is working now but because I have no idea why it does this I am worried that it could do it again any time.
Can anyone suggest what the cause is and how I go about sorting it if it happens again?
thanks

 

HI bluenose12,

Just got thru reading your last 2 threads. Seems this has been an ongoing battle for you. You may have figured out by now that spyware/malware has become very problematic in recent months. Many folks have found themselves unable to access ANY page because of it. You may need to do several things to get a handle on this problem. If you don't already have one, it would be wise to get a backup browser to use for downloading some fixes as IE is sometimes disabled in the repair process. You can choose from any of these, except of course, IE.

First, download Spybot. After installing, on the startmenu>all programs>spybot>select 'advanced' mode. On settings tab> select settings, scroll down to scan priority, select 'highest'. Scroll to 'expert settings', check the first 3. Then tick the 'online' tab and at top of page 'update'. You may have to select a US mirror from the drop down to download. Now run twice. Select all items and fix.

Second, update Adaware. Then ........
Make sure the following settings are made and on (green)

From main window :Click "Start" then " Activate in-depth scan "
Then......
Click "Use custom scanning options>Customize" and have these options on: "Scan within archives" , "Scan active processes ", "Scan registry ", "Deep scan registry" , "Scan my IE Favorites for banned URL" and "Scan my host-files "
Then.....
Go to settings(the gear on top of AdAware)>Tweak>Scanning engine and tick "Unload recognized processes during scanning" ...........then........ "Cleaning engine" and tick "Let windows remove files in use at next reboot "

Then...... click "proceed" to save your settings.
Run Adaware, delete all it finds. If anything is left unfixed, reboot.

Third, get CWShredder and run. And BHO. A BHO is like a autostart/startup that only runs when you run the Browser.
Normal entries here would be Acro….. (Acrobat Reader) or Nav…. (Norton Anti virus),among other things. Disable what you don't recognize.

Fourth, download HijackThis. If you still have problems open and run HJT and save logfile. Then open it with notepad, copy and paste it back here so that some of the 'experts' can view it and respond.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the extensive reply.
I will try these things you suggest.I have copied your post to a Word Document so I can refer to it when I have all the things downloaded.
Thanks again.

 

I have ran Spybot and AdAware 6 using the specs you suggested.
IE 6 is working.How often do you think I should run these programs?
Do you think my problems were definitely due to Spyware?

What exactly do these two programs do to Internet Explorer?

Thanks again your help was much appreciated.