Win XP browser connectivity problem

I have a computer that won’t connect to the internet through browsers but will connect with other programs. I have done a bit of work on it and all of the standard fixes that I know are coming up with nothing so I am hoping you guys may have some additional insights. I will try to include everything I know.

The Computer

The machine is running XP Home SP2. It is used heavily by a family (mom, dad, and 4 girls aged 7-15) none of which know much about computers or computer maintenance. There are three user profiles; one for mom, one for dad, and one for the kids. In my work I have mostly been on the kids profile as that one is used the most. I don’t know much about the system specs but it seems to run the OS and any program I put on it with little trouble.

The Symptoms

The computer is running very slowly (I believe this is an unrelated problem, it results from unrestricted downloading and little maintenance). Browsers will not load webpages. Firefox gives the "˜Unable to Connect’ error and nothing else, IE attempts to load the page and gets as far as putting the page name in the top bar of the program but then gives a connection error. Other programs that connect to the internet do so intermittently, sometimes they will connect and sometimes they won’t. When loaded in Safe Mode the internet connection seems to work fine for all programs. There are no additional errors reported at anytime by the OS or any program.

What I did so far

I uninstalled a bunch of suspicious programs including all browser toolbars and most internet based applications. I left a few internet programs, like MSN, because her kids use them all the time. I cycled the modem and contacted the ISP. The ISP is getting a signal from her modem and all the numbers are good. I checked her startup routines and running services through msconfig, and checked the addons in IE (firefox is a clean install that I brought to troubleshoot).

I looked though some older posts and found a few ideas. The problem I am running into is it doesn’t work normally and does work in safe mode. I would imagine that makes it a software conflict. If anybody has any insights I am all ears.

 

Thanks, I'll take a look.

It is my boss's computer and I won't be back to looking at it for a day or so so if any other thoughts come up I will try them all at once.

 

Well, good news and bad news. Good news; I managed to get the logs as mentioned in the previous posts. Bad news; since the last time I worked on her computer the connection seems to have completely stopped working in all modes and, as I found out today, neither her disk nor her CD drive works so I have no was of getting the files from her computer.

I believe the next step is me taking the machine home, fixing (or replacing) the drives, and wiping the machine.

I have a lot of respect for people that do this for a living, I am pretty sure I would go crazy Thanks for the help.