Internet Explorer hiding on me

Hello All,

Recently I discovered that my IE6 SP1 has ceased to operate. I am an MSN subscriber, so I can surf using MSN Explorer (I also use Firefox), but if I wanted to dial up independent of the MSN software and surf using IE, I can't. When I open IE, I get the basic "shell" of it, with headings, toolbars, etc.,but it will not load pages, whether I'm online or offline. I can see my favorites, history, even the "tip of the day "--but no pages will load. I get the dreaded hour glass/arrow combo in a white screen, and nothing more. I don't even get a "page cannot be displayed" page. I tried sfc /scannow, and that didn't fix it. I searched this site, found a link to "the elder geek" and applied those fixes, and still no luck. My computer wouldn't let me reinstall the "ie.inf" file or extract the "IE.EXPLORE" file from my CD; I would hit the "Retry" button about 20 times or so, but the file wouldn't load. I even tried to download it from the Microsoft Download Center, but after running the setup file, I received a dialog box that told me that "setup cannot continue...there is a newer version of IE on my computer... ", so it has to be asleep on my hard drive somewhere. Aside from the obvious repair install of XP, is there any way that I can wake the beast and get IE working again?

Thanks to all.
Brad

 

Whenever IE starts acting strangely, spyware is the first thing to suspect.

If you haven't already, run at least two spyware removal tools.

Four good free ones are Ewido, Microsoft Windows Defender, Spybot and Ad-Aware.

Each tends to find things the others miss. Using all four won't hurt. Install and mmediately update the ones you choose, run one scan at a time, let each remove all it finds.

Pay close attention during the installations to make sure you install only the spyware scanner.

 

Have you tried uninstalling it?
Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> A/R Windows Components button, uncheck the Internet Explorer box, reboot.
You could then try installing the download or rechecking the IE box and installing it from the Windows CD.

Maybe I'm oversimplifying the problem.

Matt

 

Uninstalling it in add>remove programs doesn't really uninstall it. It only removes access to it. Been there, done that.

You can try repairing it by running sfc or you can re-install it but it requires editing the registry to do so. Have a look at this for the details.

How to reinstall or repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in Windows XP

 

Not quick enough for me Zander, I now have 2 entries for IE in Start -> Programs.

Matt

 

LOL, what is it they say? Something like stuff happens I think.

 

Hi Miz,

My system is clean. I run AdAware, Spybot, SpywareBlaster, among others, and keep them updated. So I don't think that it's a spyware issue.

Matt,

It doesn't show in my programs list. I don't even have an icon on my desktop anymore. I do have that lovely little blue "e" in my Quick Launch, though...

Zander,

I tried all of those repair options already (including the registry edit), with no joy.

I'd really prefer to reinstall it somehow without having to do a repair install of XP, but if I must, I will.

Thanks for the replies. Any other ideas will be appreciated.
Brad

 

A shot in the dark here. Try disabling any add-ons that you have and see if it works then. If so, re-enabling a few at a time will help you run down the culprit. In IE click tools>internet options>programs and then click on the manage add-ons button.

 

Zander and Pete,

I tried both of your suggestions, and still no luck. Well, I figured that now was as good a time as any to try out the IE7 Beta 2, so I installed it, and the install went flawlessly, but.....I'm still having the same problem. Pages will not load in IE; I get nothing but a blank white page. IE, old or new, will not load pages. I just stare at a white page with an arrow/hour glass icon. They load perfectly using both MSN Explorer and in Firefox. What could the problem be? I'm really baffled!

Brad

 

Internet Explorer open with a blank page instead of web site

 

Just thinking out loud:
What is it trying to open? What is set as the Home Page?

Is it having trouble running something like Java (probably not if Firefox runs OK).

Matt
Edit: "What is it trying to open?" Windows Updates maybe? (only going by my Win 98 experiences)

 

Hi everyone,

IE will open nothing at all. Yahoo! is my home page, which loads perfectly on both MSN Explorer and Firefox. In the status bar, there is no progress bar to show that a page is loading. It doesn't even say "internet" in the status bar. And I tried sfc /scannow several times with no success. When I tried to re-register the dll files using the "blank page" link that Zander provided, "scrrun ", "msxml ", "mshtml ", and "msjava" all failed--the message I received was "The specified module could not be found ". All of the other dlls succeeded. Where did they go, and how can I get them back? Can I extract them from my XP and/or SP2 CDs?

I'm confused.
Brad

 

Hi Pete,

That seems to make a lot of sense...when I get home tonight I will try your suggestion, and report back to you. Also, and this is just an observation here, wnen I have run sfc in the past, I had to hit "retry" literally 150 or so times...I've barely had to hit "retry" at all while trying to fix the IE problem, maybe 3 or 4 times TOTAL in 3 attempts using sfc. Could this be why sfc isn't fixing the IE problem?

Again, I'll take care of the hidden files and folders thing, and report back later. Hopefully, I'll have some good news to report...

Thanks again for all of your help, everyone.
Brad

 

Pete,

I have the separate CD for SP2. It was installed independently of the OS. If I remove and re-install SP2, won't I lose any and all updates post-SP2? Will I have to re-install them?

Brad

 

Hello Pete,

I just looked in the dll.cache folder, and they're all in there. Now what should I do? I don't want to do anything rash where I'll wreck my system.

Brad