Laptop freezes when Opening IE

[mackay6173]

Not the most informative post, but can anyone offer any help/advice as to how to fix the issue of a Dell Inspiron 1525 freezing when you open Internet Explorer? I've thought about uninstalling and reinstalling IE, but can't get online to do this in the first place.
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated
Thanks in advance
;o)

[dizmouk2009]

Have you tried booting in Safe mode with networking to see if it works like that?

You can't uninstall IE, only disable (as such) - since IE is a part of the OS.

[MarkRae]

1) Do a Windows update

2) Download and install another web browser. Almost any one will do, but FireFox or Google Chrome would be suitable. As it installs, make sure to select the option to make it the machine's default web browser.

[tamborine]

sounds like a virus or internet conflict. Download Mozilla Firefox....it's free.

[dizmouk2009]

It's very unlikely that an internet conflict would just occur. So if it is something like a virus it's not something mackay can ignore. Firefox is great tamborine, I like it, but how is he/she supposed to download it if they are unable to use IE to download it in the first place :)

[mackay6173]

Hi 'dizmouk2009'
I've managed to start the laptop in safe mode with networking and I'm able to get online - any ideas as to what I should do now? Would it be best to try to download another browser or if I were to download IE8 again, would that reinstall over the current file (if that's what it does?) and fix the issue?

[dizmouk2009]

It sounds like a virus to me, have you tried running a virus scanner?

[society]

What version of IE are you using? Perhaps you need to upgrade to a later version.
Another thing is to make sure you have all the 'hot fixes'. These are automatically downloaded. Have a look here, see if it could help you - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323166

The above is just my guess. Hopefully one of the techie people will come on and tell you more.

[mackay6173]

Thanks to everyone who has imparted their knowledge. I'm running IE 8 and have a full McAfee antivirus suite running also, but still can't get online unless I go through safe mode with networking :o(
My wife has Uni stuff to hand in at the end of the week, so time really is of the essence here
;o)