Thanks for the replies,
I have cleared the tempory files and so far all has been ok.
When it happens, the blue progress bar at the bottom of the page does not clear. I then get the egg timer, and finally across the top of the page where it says Microsoft Internet Explorer supplied by ***** in brackets it tell me it is "not responding". I then get the error report which, when I send, takes me to the Microsoft Update page.
Hopefully the advice given so far will fix ( fingers crossed )
Thanks again.