Internet Explorer freezes up. Help!
Thread Starter
Internet Explorer freezes up. Help!
Hello all, looking for some help from you cluey folk please...
Lately, IE9 has been opening normally but freezing up (refusing to respond to scroll or click commands) within a second or so. It will usually close normally (although sometimes a CTL ALT DEL is needed) but the problem recurs next time it's opened.
It doesn't happen on all sites right away, but PPrune, for example is affected every time.
I have Trend Micro Titanium, CCleaner and Malwarebytes and have run them all several times. Malwarebytes found 5 files, which it categorised as 2x Rootkit, 2xTrojan and 1 Spyware, and appeared to have dealt with them. However, the IE problem is still there.
We are fairly careful with what links we click on and so on, but the kids had some friends over the other day who showed them how to download 'skins' for Minecraft, and I suspect this may be what's kicked off the problem.
It's a Windows 7 PC, and the IE9 version is 9.0.8112.16421, if that's of any relevance.
Thanks in advance for any clues,
Cheers
Tim
Lately, IE9 has been opening normally but freezing up (refusing to respond to scroll or click commands) within a second or so. It will usually close normally (although sometimes a CTL ALT DEL is needed) but the problem recurs next time it's opened.
It doesn't happen on all sites right away, but PPrune, for example is affected every time.
I have Trend Micro Titanium, CCleaner and Malwarebytes and have run them all several times. Malwarebytes found 5 files, which it categorised as 2x Rootkit, 2xTrojan and 1 Spyware, and appeared to have dealt with them. However, the IE problem is still there.
We are fairly careful with what links we click on and so on, but the kids had some friends over the other day who showed them how to download 'skins' for Minecraft, and I suspect this may be what's kicked off the problem.
It's a Windows 7 PC, and the IE9 version is 9.0.8112.16421, if that's of any relevance.
Thanks in advance for any clues,
Cheers
Tim
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1) right click the hard drive, select properties > general > disk clean up and clear the trash off the machine
2) reset internet explorer to its defaults (control panel > classic view > internet properties > advanced > reset
3) go into "programs and settings" and uninstall ALL toolbars (adn any crapware)
4) download and run in turn in safe mode
RKill
TDSSKiller (Kaspersky)
Hitman Pro
Combofix
Spybot S&D
these are not alternatives - these are a deliberate sequence to be run conecutively
afterwards update Java. Flash and Adobe reader -and install all windows updates
Question
what were the rootkits and trojans it found?
FYI - Trend software isn't too hot on clearing rootkits
2) reset internet explorer to its defaults (control panel > classic view > internet properties > advanced > reset
3) go into "programs and settings" and uninstall ALL toolbars (adn any crapware)
4) download and run in turn in safe mode
RKill
TDSSKiller (Kaspersky)
Hitman Pro
Combofix
Spybot S&D
these are not alternatives - these are a deliberate sequence to be run conecutively
afterwards update Java. Flash and Adobe reader -and install all windows updates
Question
what were the rootkits and trojans it found?
FYI - Trend software isn't too hot on clearing rootkits
Last edited by Milo Minderbinder; 28th Sep 2012 at 23:17.
Thread Starter
Wow, thanks for your detailed response, Milo.
The things Malwarebytes found were called msimg32.dll (Rootkit.0Access), ~!#3027.tmp (Trojan.LameShield), ~!#4186.tmp (Rootkit.0Access), 6ddfe56f-107b773c (Spyware.Zbot) and rtpsa.dll (Trojan.RedirRd112.Gen) (all were supposedly quarantined and deleted apart from the last, for which the log says 'Delete on reboot'.
I suspect the kids may have visited some sites that made us vulnerable when their friends showed them how to download custom 'skins' for minecraft, as the problem's surfaced not long after they did that. We're usually strict on not clicking on things you don't trust, but let them do it this time, to our detriment it seems.
I'll work through your instructions now and see how it goes, and again, many thanks.
The things Malwarebytes found were called msimg32.dll (Rootkit.0Access), ~!#3027.tmp (Trojan.LameShield), ~!#4186.tmp (Rootkit.0Access), 6ddfe56f-107b773c (Spyware.Zbot) and rtpsa.dll (Trojan.RedirRd112.Gen) (all were supposedly quarantined and deleted apart from the last, for which the log says 'Delete on reboot'.
I suspect the kids may have visited some sites that made us vulnerable when their friends showed them how to download custom 'skins' for minecraft, as the problem's surfaced not long after they did that. We're usually strict on not clicking on things you don't trust, but let them do it this time, to our detriment it seems.
I'll work through your instructions now and see how it goes, and again, many thanks.
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Thread Starter
Your help is extremely useful, Milo - thanks again.
Have been working through the steps you nominated and am up to trying to remove something called 'Ask Toolbar', publisher Ask.com, which I certainly haven't purposely installed.
When I attempt the uninstall in Control Panel, I'm asked if I 'want the following program from an unknown publisher to make changes...', (Windows\Installer\174ed0.msi)
If I click yes, a message tells me all IE browser windows should be closed in order to complete the uninstallation, although none are open. This message keeps coming up and won't progress past that point.
If I click no, I get Error 1730, telling me I must be an administrator to remove the application. As far as I know, the account we use is designated as the administrator already, so again I'm unable to proceed.
Have been working through the steps you nominated and am up to trying to remove something called 'Ask Toolbar', publisher Ask.com, which I certainly haven't purposely installed.
When I attempt the uninstall in Control Panel, I'm asked if I 'want the following program from an unknown publisher to make changes...', (Windows\Installer\174ed0.msi)
If I click yes, a message tells me all IE browser windows should be closed in order to complete the uninstallation, although none are open. This message keeps coming up and won't progress past that point.
If I click no, I get Error 1730, telling me I must be an administrator to remove the application. As far as I know, the account we use is designated as the administrator already, so again I'm unable to proceed.
Thread Starter
Update on the last problem - used Revo uninstaller to get rid of the Ask Toolbar, but internet explorer's still freezing up. Will continue with the steps Milo outlined. Fingers crossed!
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toolbars often do this - their installer are often incomplete
The "Ask" toolbar is "legit", but even so can still cause stability problems
If you can't get rid of a program like that easily, another way is to disable it using Autoruns
Autoruns for Windows
If I'm cleaning a machine up, Autoruns is one of the first tools I use, simply to stop things running, enabling later removal of them
But its a dangerous program if you don't know what to delete
A similar good program - though not much use in Windows 7, is Trend Micro's "Hijack This"
The "Ask" toolbar is "legit", but even so can still cause stability problems
If you can't get rid of a program like that easily, another way is to disable it using Autoruns
Autoruns for Windows
If I'm cleaning a machine up, Autoruns is one of the first tools I use, simply to stop things running, enabling later removal of them
But its a dangerous program if you don't know what to delete
A similar good program - though not much use in Windows 7, is Trend Micro's "Hijack This"
Thread Starter
Well, I've run all those programs, thanks, Milo. Not sure if everything's back to normal, but we seem to be getting there!
The weird thing I'm noticing now is that some sites are responding normally on Internet Explorer, and others are hanging as before. For example, PPrune works for about a second and then refuses to respond, whereas a camping site called myswag.org works perfectly.
Windows sometimes pops up a thing with 'Internet Explorer is not responding', and in 'problem details', says 'A problem caused this program to stop interacting with windows.' Problem Event Name is given as AppHangB1.
I don't know, getting a bit discouraged now but will come back to it later after I've thought about it more. Bloody computers!
Thanks yet again, Milo. You've been a great help.
The weird thing I'm noticing now is that some sites are responding normally on Internet Explorer, and others are hanging as before. For example, PPrune works for about a second and then refuses to respond, whereas a camping site called myswag.org works perfectly.
Windows sometimes pops up a thing with 'Internet Explorer is not responding', and in 'problem details', says 'A problem caused this program to stop interacting with windows.' Problem Event Name is given as AppHangB1.
I don't know, getting a bit discouraged now but will come back to it later after I've thought about it more. Bloody computers!
Thanks yet again, Milo. You've been a great help.
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try this
control panel > internet options > advanced
First item in the list should be "use software rendering rather than GPU rendering"
Put a tick in the box, safe, and then restart
control panel > internet options > advanced
First item in the list should be "use software rendering rather than GPU rendering"
Put a tick in the box, safe, and then restart
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Mozilla firefox
google chrome
opera
all more secure, faster, less issues and less bugs. take your pick, i think chrome is best, followed very closely by firefox and 3rd is opera. trailing right at the foot of the ladder is IE . hope that helps
google chrome
opera
all more secure, faster, less issues and less bugs. take your pick, i think chrome is best, followed very closely by firefox and 3rd is opera. trailing right at the foot of the ladder is IE . hope that helps
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less bugs
There's so much broken stuff out there on the web (eg sites deliberately engineered not to work on a particular browser, people still basing sites on Ext JS 2.2 that works up to IE 8 but not on IE 9, etc etc) that you might well find that you need more than one browser these days.
Last edited by Gertrude the Wombat; 29th Sep 2012 at 10:25.
Thread Starter
Cheers once again, Milo; I owe you a beer or ten.
Still struggling with it, but getting closer or at least a bit more educated! We are away on holidays for a week starting tomorrow so I'll have to come back to the problem when we return.
No doubt there's some simpl(ish) solution, will just have to track it down, or failing that, go for a clean re-install and start from scratch!
All the best,
Tim
Still struggling with it, but getting closer or at least a bit more educated! We are away on holidays for a week starting tomorrow so I'll have to come back to the problem when we return.
No doubt there's some simpl(ish) solution, will just have to track it down, or failing that, go for a clean re-install and start from scratch!
All the best,
Tim
Thread Starter
Just saw the last couple of replies - thanks to you folks as well. I will try Firefox etc. Just seems strange that it's only in the past few days we're having trouble with IE9, which suggests to me there's been a bit of malicious software arrive on the machine by some means.
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I had exactly the same problem.
Tried running defender / spybot etc, adjusting IE settings, deleted IE9 update (so PC ran IE8) all to no avail.
I then set PC back to a restore point from a few weeks ago and now IE9 seems to run OK.
Due to IE problems, I started using Chrome and have now made it my default browser.
Tried running defender / spybot etc, adjusting IE settings, deleted IE9 update (so PC ran IE8) all to no avail.
I then set PC back to a restore point from a few weeks ago and now IE9 seems to run OK.
Due to IE problems, I started using Chrome and have now made it my default browser.
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IE 8 and 9 freezes
I had the same problem that seemed to begin after a Windows update during the night of September 25. I had only two windows that would open up for me and not freeze; Bing and Google. All others would attempt to load, but were always sub-captioned with the notation "waiting for response from server". Usually, the page would finally finish loading after 5 minutes or so, but then the same thing would happen on subsequent clicks on links within that page.
I tried a great number of things to solve this issue but finally landed on the right trick. In IE, I navigated through Tools/Internet Options/Programs/ to Manage Add-ons. Here you can disable all the visible Add-ons, but the key was to select the button "Currently Loaded Add-ons" and choose "Show All". I was surprised to see the number of add-ons more than double, with a whopping 16 listed under Microsoft alone. I disabled ALL of the add-ons and from there on IE functioned perfectly, and at speeds I was unused to. I suppose the next step would be to enable the add-ons one by one, testing IE to see which one was the culprit causing the freezes, but I'm enjoying the enhanced internet browsing speed so much I think I'll just leave them disabled for now. I notice that when I visit certain web sites, I will be asked to enable a certain add-on, so may do that on an as-needed basis. Note that by earlier upgrading to IE 9, nothing was solved. Best of luck!
I tried a great number of things to solve this issue but finally landed on the right trick. In IE, I navigated through Tools/Internet Options/Programs/ to Manage Add-ons. Here you can disable all the visible Add-ons, but the key was to select the button "Currently Loaded Add-ons" and choose "Show All". I was surprised to see the number of add-ons more than double, with a whopping 16 listed under Microsoft alone. I disabled ALL of the add-ons and from there on IE functioned perfectly, and at speeds I was unused to. I suppose the next step would be to enable the add-ons one by one, testing IE to see which one was the culprit causing the freezes, but I'm enjoying the enhanced internet browsing speed so much I think I'll just leave them disabled for now. I notice that when I visit certain web sites, I will be asked to enable a certain add-on, so may do that on an as-needed basis. Note that by earlier upgrading to IE 9, nothing was solved. Best of luck!
Thread Starter
Hello Milo et al, back from holidays now and have launched back into the problem again.
After numerous tries to disable add-ons, get rid of toolbars, run spy- and malware detectors etc, the issue was still recurring.
As I said, I greatly appreciate your help, Milo, but must still be doing something wrong as I can't get IE9 to stop freezing. It often seems to hang with a hugely long googleads.g.doubleclick.net address down the bottom, as if it's trying to redirect me somewhere but not getting there - this may have something to do with it.
However, I decided to try and bypass the hassle altogether and downloaded google chrome instead. Lo and behold, the clouds parted and it works quickly and hang-free. I'm happy for the moment, but will still try to ascertain if there's some nasty ware on our computer that still needs to be removed.
I contacted our security provider, Trend Micro, and they seem rather keen to find out what's going on - have sent them a log at their request and they have promised to get back to me with a fix. We shall see!
Cheers,
Tim
After numerous tries to disable add-ons, get rid of toolbars, run spy- and malware detectors etc, the issue was still recurring.
As I said, I greatly appreciate your help, Milo, but must still be doing something wrong as I can't get IE9 to stop freezing. It often seems to hang with a hugely long googleads.g.doubleclick.net address down the bottom, as if it's trying to redirect me somewhere but not getting there - this may have something to do with it.
However, I decided to try and bypass the hassle altogether and downloaded google chrome instead. Lo and behold, the clouds parted and it works quickly and hang-free. I'm happy for the moment, but will still try to ascertain if there's some nasty ware on our computer that still needs to be removed.
I contacted our security provider, Trend Micro, and they seem rather keen to find out what's going on - have sent them a log at their request and they have promised to get back to me with a fix. We shall see!
Cheers,
Tim
Thread Starter
G'day again all,
Just one final question, if I may:
We have a number of computers running Windows 7 and IE9; two Leader laptops and the desktop, which is the one affected with the 'hanging' website issue I've been trying to solve.
Seeing as I've run all these detection programs and they haven't killed the problem, which of these scenarios (in your learned opinions) is the most likely:
a) there is still some malicious bit of software lurking on the desktop that I need to find and get rid of, rather than just blithely thinking my problem is solved by using a different browser, or
b) it's just a quirk of different computers that one has been affected and the others haven't, so tracking down the root cause is no big deal.
I know that's a bit general, but I want to know if I should be worried about chasing it more or not.
cheers and thanks again
Just one final question, if I may:
We have a number of computers running Windows 7 and IE9; two Leader laptops and the desktop, which is the one affected with the 'hanging' website issue I've been trying to solve.
Seeing as I've run all these detection programs and they haven't killed the problem, which of these scenarios (in your learned opinions) is the most likely:
a) there is still some malicious bit of software lurking on the desktop that I need to find and get rid of, rather than just blithely thinking my problem is solved by using a different browser, or
b) it's just a quirk of different computers that one has been affected and the others haven't, so tracking down the root cause is no big deal.
I know that's a bit general, but I want to know if I should be worried about chasing it more or not.
cheers and thanks again