Computer Issues - Logging on to accounts, Amazon, Comcast, Landsend, etc.. HHEEELLLPPP

Ok, the problem is on my wifes laptop, and if I can't fix it its going to get ugly real soon.
Running a Dell Inspirion, with IE 8 and windows Vista. Also run PC Micro for anti virus, and results are clean.
Surfing from one website to the next is fine, pages load just fine. The problem occurs when she is trying to access a site that requires a login/password....i.e comcast.net for email, amazon.com for shopping cart, land end shopping cart, etc...
Basically, we can load pages quickly at amazon.com, landsend.com etc....but when you try to get to your "account or shopping cart, etc....it just takes forever, and usually wont let you access the page. (Page loads on Hearth.com and all the other sites are fine)
Please point me in the right direction of what I should be looking for. (I checked the settings compared to my desktop upstairs, and they all seem to be the same....same OS, same IE, Trend Micro, etc...
I gotta figure this out as the mrs's needs to get her shopping done.
Any help would be great.

How about we save you some money and not tell you how to fix it? :lol: Sorry but I have no ideas, just had to put in my 2 cents worth!

Gary

Are you saying that NONE of the certain web page loads, or that it partially loads, then just sits there?

The first might have to do with some sort of blocking done by the browser or some other software on your machine. The second would suggest a program necessary for you to view the page, like java, has become corrupted.

Do you have another browser to try, besides IE? Like Firefox, etc.? If it will load there, then the problem is with IE.

Do you have any sort of blocking software installed?

And are you getting any sort of error message?

I too would suggest downloading Firefox and try that. It would be a quick and easy way to see if it is an IE problem.

No errors.....just very slow page loading, or the page doesn't load at all.

But does the page eventually load fully sometimes, and is functional? What is actually on the screen?

Are you getting the "timeout" error, namely a 404 error? Sometimes it takes a minute or so to come up.

You wouldn't need to uninstall IE. You can have more than one browser. You can download firefox from the firefox website. It will install like any windows program, and there will be an icon on the desktop. Click it to run. Try to access the pages and see if it works normally.

No errors at all. Just sometimes the page doesnt load at all now. Just installed firefox, and couldn't access anything....uninstalled firefox and now have bigger problems....this laptop sucks

Installing firefox shouldn't have changed anything else on the computer. What happened when you tried to access a web page with it?

Ok, back on my pc now.....just tried to post a response on the laptop, and then I get an error that " Internet explorer has encountned a problem"
Basically, it seems like any page I access that I would enter "info on" such as a login, passowrd, post message (i.e. hearth.com) it just locks up)
Plugged laptop directly into the back of the modem, and still the same issues...so I know its not a modem/router issue.
Man, this is pissing me off.

But what actually happened when you tried to access the web with firefox? What appeared on the screen?

Just got this error that my computer had invalid credentials when trying to access comcast...wouldn't let me go any further.

Well, been working on the laptop for a few hours now, and need to step away from it. When I tried to post a response from the laptop,I got the same error....IE is not working.

So, in a nutshell here is the issue:

The computer appears to work fine from navigating from site to site. Then, when I tried to post a response on hearth.com to this thread, I got the same error....IE is not responding - diagnose problem. So, along with the compter locking up on pages that have a login/password, its now locking up on pages that allow me to enter data, i.e. typing a response to a post.

After it locks up, I have to use task manager to close out IE. Then, if I try to access IE again, it won't allow me to. I then have to reboot the machine, and it will then allow me to access IE,yahoo,google, etc....and I can paruse until I get to a page that requires any user entry.

Just ran a defrag on the laptop, and 1 1/2 hours on the anti virus, etc....nothing came up. This can't be a major issue as I don't see any hardware issues....just something is preventing the compter from accessing a page that you can either enter data on, or login/password, etc...

In addition, last night night I ran the laptop directly to the router via the port on the back, and then directly to the modem and had the same issues. The PC I am working on now connected to the router is working fine.

Well, gotta step away for a few hours, as been at this since 5:00am thanks to my son getting sick in his bed this morning....who needs an alarm clock for that lol

You've got somethnbg stuck in there...either a messed up page that is screwing with your computer's SSL settings (resulting in poor or no performance when browing to secure pages) or something along those lines. Or someone visitied an infected website or opened an infected e-mail attachment and your computer has a virus or a bit of malware in there that may or ma not be hijacking the thing. If you are able to visit pages where you can type login credentials, but then it craps out AFTER you put in your username and password you may have a bit of malware thats harvesting your credentials and passing them along to some butthead.

Lets try to fix it.

When you go to the pages that load slowly, click the compatibility view button, this is the icon that looks like a broken piece of paper on the right side of the address bar in IE8. It removes all the new features of IE8 and loads the page like its in IE7. I've had plenty of pages that run significantly better when I do this. I think your issue is more widespread than this should help fix, but it only takes a few seconds to try it.

In IE, go to tools (the gear icon in the upper right), then internet options and on the first tab, click the delete button in the middle. On the next page, check all the boxes but the top one and hit the delete button at the bottom. This is going to clear out all the embedded, cached information IE has stored, some of which is likely also being used by Firefox as they do share some cached information by default.

When its all done, close out of everything, reboot the computer and try again. Only your favorites list will be preserved.

I see you'r running anti-virus software. What is it and what is the date of the last update? Make sure its up to date and run a full scan of the computer. If you aren't running any AV software or its hopelessly out of date (anything more than a day or so out of day is hopelesly out of date by the way) you need to get something on there rihgt away. I recommend Grisoft's AVG Free, which works quite well for me and includes a good anti-virus and anti-malware/spyware module. You can google "AVG FREE" and find it that way.

You might also be able to backdate windows to restore it from a time when it did work properly. Did it start doing this recently?

Good luck, I'm sure this is fixable.

Thanks Mayhem.
Last night and this morning, I removed all temp files, cookies, browsing history etc.
We run Trend Micro Internet Security, which is anti malware/antivirus, firewalls etc. Use automatic updates, and ran a complete scan this morning.
Basically, where the pages get locked up is when trying to access a page with login/passoword info...you rarely never get to actually access the page, and when it does come up, the pages seems to be missing all the formating, etc... (just looks like type, with no pictures, etc)
Appreaciate the help.

Also, the problem started about a month ago....but only when accessing Comcast.net for my wife to check her email...loaded very slow, but after a few minutes it eventually let her in. Now, it seems to be anything you enter data on....for example, I was posting a post on this topic in Hearth.com, and when I clicked to post it just locked up and lost the internet connection. I can go to amazon.com and paruse fine, but when you try to access your shopping cart/account, thats where the delay begins.....before you enter your password/login info

Also, do you recommend downloading AVG if I am already running trend micro?

Turn off all ancillary programs, like the antivirus program, and everything else that might be limiting the browser's access to the internet. Turn off the windows firewall, if it is on, or any other firewall you have installed.

If that doesn't fix it, back up any bookmarks or other data you want to keep from IE, then uninstall it, then re-install it.

But if firefox was installed properly and really couldn't access any page on the internet, then the problem must be a separate program that's limiting internet access.

ok, just did this with amazon.com...addd it as a trusted site (https) and tried to load the shopping cart...same results

I shut off all programs...same results. (firewal/defender, Trend micro)
How does one uninstall IE? (I can't find it on the list of programs to remove)

Found it, you have to go to the updates page and uninstall there....(not listed as a program)
Uninstalling now, we will see how it goes

It goes back to IE 7. Still having the same issues.
Looks like I am just going to back everything up and then wipe the drive clean and start from scratch?

Problem is I can't find my original install disc that came with the laptop