Internet explorer turns off !!

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Guest

My mother bought a new computer. It was only two weeks old and it started to
give her problems. When we double clicked on 'Internet Explorer, Outlook
Express, or Windows Explorer' it opened for about 1 or 2 seconds and then
turned back off...

A week later a friend bought a new computer and only after a week it's doing
the same thing.

Could this be a security update going wrong?
Has anyone else had this happen?
Has anyone got any ideas to fix?

Running: Norton Antivirus, XP home Edition SP1, Pentium (?) 2.8GHz, 256MBDDR
RAM, 40GB HD.
 
If I were you I would contact the person you bought the computer from as it
is still under warranty and tell them you want your money back or a new
computer.
 
Could you give a bit more information.
Is there any error message?
Have you checked the event log to see what is recorded there?
Has your mother been using the internet without a firewall?
Did this problem occur after installing anything new?
Does your friend have the same computer or a different company's?

If you can be specific it will help
 
A computer is a benign object. You can buy a new computer, set it up and turn
it on, and then leave it run for years. It will NOT give anyone a problem.

It's when people who don't know what they are doing interact with the
computer taht "they" (the people) give the computer problems.

The computer is NOT a friggen T.V. remote. Nor is it a toaster oven. If a
person wants to use a computer they should, at the least, RTFM! Sadly, damn
few do.
 
Hey, sport:
Re your reply:
Paragraph #1: If indeed a computer did not give anyone a problem, this
newsgroup would be superfluous.
Paragraph #2: If a computer is to be considered "benign" people would NOT be
able to ineract with it. Further to this, a benign object, by definition,
cannot have "problems".
Paragraph #3: If this is your opinion, what are you doing on this site?
There are numerous MVP's and others who are devoting their time and
knowledge to assist those of us who are not as proficeint or capable as they
with problems we encounter. With an attitude and disposition such as yours,
where are you going to go for help?
In closing, if you have children please, for their sake and ours, DO NOT
attempt to teach them how to drive. If you are not now you are a candidate
for "road rage".
 
Hello TheBFG,

Answers to your questions –

Ø Is there any error message? No error message comes up. Double click the
icon on the desktop, internet explorer splash appears, then the window
appears for about half a second maybe and then switches off, and that’s it.
Ø Have you checked the event log to see what is recorded there? No, What is
that, and what am I looking for?
Ø Has your mother been using the Internet without a firewall? No, the
firewall is active.
Ø Did this problem occur after installing anything new? Not really. The
software that was installed when she bought it is all that’s on it at the
moment. The only thing new is the windows updates.
Ø Does your friend have the same computer or a different company's? As a
matter of fact they are similar machines, both HP. Slightly different specs,
exact same fault.

Hello pissed off at stupidity,

First of all, what the hell does ‘taht’ and ‘RTFM’mean? (Read the f*****
manual!!!)
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to operate a computer these days.
If that were the case gates would be broke. The whole idea was to develop an
operating system that the average Joe Blow could operate with very few
skills. Have you seen XP lately? ‘Make a new folder’ No skill required
there! If the software had no bugs, what’s all the patches and security
updates for?

Anyway, back to my problem! My mother has owned and operated computers in
the past. She knows enough to maintain and update the system. Any majors
and she calls me, however this fault has got me stumped.

Any other suggestions out there…
Oh yea, Thanks for your replies!

:

Could you give a bit more information.
Is there any error message?
Have you checked the event log to see what is recorded there?
Has your mother been using the internet without a firewall?
Did this problem occur after installing anything new?
Does your friend have the same computer or a different company's?

If you can be specific it will help

“pissed off at stupidity†wrote:

A computer is a benign object. You can buy a new computer, set it up and turn
it on, and then leave it run for years. It will NOT give anyone a problem.

It's when people who don't know what they are doing interact with the
computer taht "they" (the people) give the computer problems.

The computer is NOT a friggen T.V. remote. Nor is it a toaster oven. If a
person wants to use a computer they should, at the least, RTFM! Sadly, damn
few do.
 
Hello TheBFG,

Answers to your questions –

Ø Is there any error message? No error message comes up. Double click the
icon on the desktop, internet explorer splash appears, then the window
appears for about half a second maybe and then switches off, and that’s it.
Ø Have you checked the event log to see what is recorded there? No, What is
that, and what am I looking for?
Ø Has your mother been using the Internet without a firewall? No, the
firewall is active.
Ø Did this problem occur after installing anything new? Not really. The
software that was installed when she bought it is all that’s on it at the
moment. The only thing new is the windows updates.
Ø Does your friend have the same computer or a different company's? As a
matter of fact they are similar machines, both HP. Slightly different specs,
exact same fault.

Hello pissed off at stupidity,

First of all, what the hell does ‘taht’ and ‘RTFM’mean? (Read the f*****
manual!!!)
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to operate a computer these days.
If that were the case gates would be broke. The whole idea was to develop an
operating system that the average Joe Blow could operate with very few
skills. Have you seen XP lately? ‘Make a new folder’ No skill required
there! If the software had no bugs, what’s all the patches and security
updates for?

Anyway, back to my problem! My mother has owned and operated computers in
the past. She knows enough to maintain and update the system. Any majors
and she calls me, however this fault has got me stumped.

Any other suggestions out there…
Oh yea, Thanks for your replies!

:

Could you give a bit more information.
Is there any error message?
Have you checked the event log to see what is recorded there?
Has your mother been using the internet without a firewall?
Did this problem occur after installing anything new?
Does your friend have the same computer or a different company's?

If you can be specific it will help

“pissed off at stupidity†wrote:

A computer is a benign object. You can buy a new computer, set it up and turn
it on, and then leave it run for years. It will NOT give anyone a problem.

It's when people who don't know what they are doing interact with the
computer taht "they" (the people) give the computer problems.

The computer is NOT a friggen T.V. remote. Nor is it a toaster oven. If a
person wants to use a computer they should, at the least, RTFM! Sadly, damn
few do.
 
In response:
1) The event log ( or more correctly event viewer) can be found by going to
control panel-performance and maintenance-mangement tools-event viewer
Double click the event viewer icon and it should give you three options
applications/programs security and system. If you check under applications
you should be able to find an error that relates to internet explorer. At
least it should give an idea as to what kind of error is cropping up to cause
the problem.

2) It is possible that the updates you installed caused a problem. I forget
which one,but I vaguely remember that one update/ hotfix caused numerous
problems like the one you describe. Try going to the microsoft knowledge base
to see if you can find anything. Or you could try uninstalling the updates
and see if the problem is solved then you can narrow it down to that factor
at least.

3) The only other possibility is some kind of spyware. Try going to
Webroot.com and getting the free trial version of their spysweeper to see if
it comes up with anything.

All the best
 
I merely scanned this thread but I don't believe I saw anyone mention pop up
software. I read on the MS website that the new SP(service pack) will
include it. I know that some pop up stoppers I've used can be so
restrictive as to not allow any occurence of IE without disabling it or
using a temporary disabling switch (i.e. with mine I have to depress the
ctrl key to allow IE to come up). This sounds like it might be your
problem. The symptoms you describe sound exactly like what happens to me
when I forget about the pop up software.
 
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