IE problem I've never seen before

[B Trevathan]

I've come across something that has me stumped, I've never seen this before. I've been working on a XP home system with service pack 2 and it had IE7 installed, it has automatic updates turned on.

The user said he clicked on the little shield to do an update and afterwards nothing work, IE or Outlook Express or anything so he did a system restore to before the update and that got everything to work except IE7. I tried to open IE properties by right clicking the IE desktop icon but nothing happened so I tried to open internet options from the control panel and still nothing happened so then I opened IE from the start menu and only the background of IE and the address bar portion loaded with no other tool bars or menus or tabs or anything else. I've tried reinstalling IE7 with no luck same thing, I tried installing IE8 and the whole browser will load now but the homepage will say it is loading but never will, all the menus worked but nothing on the address or search bars portion works, if you open a second tab it loads and then if you click back on the first tab the homepage then loads, you can press F5 and the pages will refresh or you can press Esc and the pages will stop loading but if you click next to the address bar to refresh or stop those buttons don't work only the keyboard shortcuts do.

I installed Firefox and it works, I've also tried registering the dll files for IE7 and IE8, I've uninstalled IE8 and reinstalled it, I started to uninstall IE7 but there has been a lot of updates and programs installed after it was first installed that would be messed up if I uninstalled it and I don't want to put that much work and time into it (Old Machine, XP Home, etc.), same way with XP service pack 3 I think it would make the problem worse or at least have the same problem.

I just now found out that search does not work.

 

[JosephLeo]

It had IE7 installed

Well there's your problem right there.

Do your customer a favor and recommend a real web browser like Firefox, Opera, or Chrome.

As far as the issue goes- I would have to look at that in person to diagnose it. Just run Autoruns and HijackThis and check if there is anything suspicious.

 

[JD1248]

Have you checked ip configuration, not static no proxies. Also is dns client service running. Might want to reset browser settings, possible add on conflict. & check cookie settings.

 

[B Trevathan]

Thanks for the quick response

Thanks for the quick response

JosephLeo
I know, I always use Firefox and I have installed Firefox on their machine and it works great but if I don't get IE8 working its like I have failed or just done the job half way. The PC is running AVG and its up to date, the PC starts fast and good, everything seems to work except IE and search

Maybe a little more detailed description of the problem will help:
In IE8 when you click back it doesn't go back, when you click forward it doesn't go forward, in the address bar when you type an address it doesn't do anything, if you click refresh it doesn't refresh, when you click stop it doesn't stop, in the search bar when you type something to search for it doesn't search.

And as far as things working:
All the links on pages work, F5 for refresh works, Esc for stop works, You can use search engines like Google to search and Enter works.

I just found out the compatibility view button works. This is strange, some buttons in the area don't work but yet some do.

JD1248
PC connects to IP with no problems, IP is dialup at 50.6Kbs and I think that real good for dialup, no proxies, other things connect like Firefox and Outlook Express, I temporary stopped DNS, I started IE8 without add ons or extensions, the browser settings have been reset, temporary internet files deleted, history deleted, form data deleted, in private filtering data deleted. I don't thing any of the basic IE settings would cause this problem, I think it would be target more to the registry or a dll file, I have unregistered and re-registered all the IE dll files that I know of (around 22 files) and if it was a registry problem I think installing IE8 would have fixed that.

 

[NickCat11]

PC connects to IP with no problems, IP is dialup at 50.6Kbs and I think that real good for dialup

People actually still use dial-up

 

[i.t-works]

I had a problem similar to this once, try running system file checker (sfc /scannow) and try resetting IE7 (Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Reset)

 

[PatrickB]

People actually still use dial-up

B Trevathan, you could use Process Monitor from Microsoft's Sysinternals to see if IE is hanging on a particular DLL, or looking for a file that no longer exists, or what Registry entry it is accessing at the time.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx


Nick, Ha! Where do you live? A large amount of the land in the U.S. is still covered only by dialup. My own brother lives 5 miles outside of a small town. The small town has had DSL for about 10 years. My brother is lucky to get a 24K connection on dialup. The U.S. is ranked around 20th in broadband penetration. Of course, it has a much larger and diverse geography to overcome than some nations. Here are a couple of presentations of the numbers:

• http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/us-20th-in-broadband-penetration-trails-s-korea-estonia.arshttp://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...adband-penetration-trails-s-korea-estonia.arshttp://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...adband-penetration-trails-s-korea-estonia.ars
• http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0809/

There is debate about how to measure broadband penetration, but no debate that the U.S. is unexpectedly low.

-- Patrick B.

 

[NickCat11]

Nick, Ha! Where do you live? A large amount of the land in the U.S. is still covered only by dialup. My own brother lives 5 miles outside of a small town. The small town has had DSL for about 10 years. My brother is lucky to get a 24K connection on dialup. The U.S. is ranked around 20th in broadband penetration. Of course, it has a much larger and diverse geography to overcome than some nations. Here are a couple of presentations of the numbers:

• http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/06/us-20th-in-broadband-penetration-trails-s-korea-estonia.arshttp://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...adband-penetration-trails-s-korea-estonia.arshttp://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...adband-penetration-trails-s-korea-estonia.ars
• http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0809/

There is debate about how to measure broadband penetration, but no debate that the U.S. is unexpectedly low.

-- Patrick B.

Wow, that's some interesting information. I honestly thought dial-up was just about extinct. Who would of thought we would be behind other nations for broadband penetration. Crazy.

 

[B Trevathan]

Only two files stand out in Process Monitor

Only two files stand out in Process Monitor, IESHIMS.DLL and STDOLE2.TLB
I will install them later, my eyes are crossed from look at so much info in Process Monitor, most of it said success thats good


IESHIMS.DLL

Ieshims.dll is used to maintain application compatibility with earlier versions of Internet Explorer, and replaces the functionality provided by the iebrshim.dll, AcRedir.dll, AcLayers.dll, and shimeng.dll files.


Stdole2.tlb

STOLE2.TLB stands for Standard Object Linking Embedding version 2 . Table Library. This is one of four files used by Windows for the Automation files (formerly OLE Automation (Object Linking Embedding)).


This is a small town also, I think 3 miles out is the limit here for DSL or Cable, beyond that its dialup or satellite. My client said that he gets around 14K, another client also had a slow connection and it was two crossed telephone wires, telephone company repaired the wires and she went from 28K to a blazing fast speed of 48K

 

[B Trevathan]

Its working

Its working, I installed both files Ieshims.dll and Stdole2.tlb Now IE8 and Windows search are both working. I don't know which file fixed them or if it was both files. I used Process Monitor thanks to PatrickB's post and it showed that IE8 was looking in several places for both files. That was a strange problem and for not only it to cause IE8 not to work but also Windows search. Maybe if someone else has this problem they will now see this fix.

Thanks everyone for all the help.


PatrickB
Thanks for reminding me about Process Monitor, I haven't use it in about a year, it showed me what IE8 was looking for.

 

[atlanticjim]

Just got to read this post and have to say thanks. This worked just as it should, question, suggestions, bingo, happy client, new information for us to store away. I was reading it like a novella, waiting for the inevitable nuke and pave. Thanks to all who contributed.

 

[PatrickB]

Yay! Good work B.

For others that are less familiar with Process Monitor or FileMon, it is normal for Windows apps to look in several places and fail, then finally have success in finding the file. When I first used FileMon, I was concerned about all of the FAIL's shown. In B's case, there was never success so he knew those two files were suspect.

-- Patrick B.