I actually have 2 problems, but i'll start with what i put in my subject. ok, i recently got a new harddrive as my old when went to crap. after installing windows i did the appropriate updates including windows sp2. now, whenever i try to use internet explorer it comes up with "cannot find server". i use aol instant messenger and it is always on, so my connection to the internet works. i tried to install firefox to see if it was jsut internet explorer and that worked for about 10 minutes, and now it jsut loads a blank page and says done at the bottom. i've tried a lot of different things including running some winsockfix program, renaming the wsock32.dll file to wsock32.old. i did it a couple of different times and that actually made it possible to load a page and then it started doing the same thing over again so i figure i might be on to something with that.

problem number 2: when i try to shut down windows it gets to the point where it says windows is shutting down and it stays there. i wanted to see if it just took a long time so i kept it like that overnight and it was still the same screen in the morning.

please help. i'm just a poor college student trying to fix this on my own without the aid of professionals. thanks all.

Hey all, this is also my first post, although I've been browsing for a while. My internet Explorer is of course working fine right now, but for the last few weeks it's been a nightmare. I have run virus scan as well as spyware (I use Cox's protection program.) I've removed everything that was infecting the system. I do not belive I have any spyware other then the stupid whenu_savenow thing - which I'm told by an IT guy at my work will virtually always be there if I surf the web often - and I do not believe it is the problem. I've gone thru the thread " Internet Explorer Running SLOW" and ran PRCView. There are of course several processes running that are unecessary such as the printer, some dell support things etc. but nothing that wasn't running before the problems (well at least from what I can remember.) Everything looks fine there. Sometimes IE runs just fine, but it doesn't last long. I am constantly getting the "Cannot find server" error for pages trying to load. If it's a link, I have to click on it repeatedly and EVENTUALLY the page may load if I'm lucky. (Let me tell you - it's been hell trying to go through these threads hoping someone had a similar problem and some solutions!!!!) I don't know if I've gotten the update that was mentioned in ryandmc's post but it's quite possible. Also - mentioned in the IE running slow thread I've tried disabling the security, I've tried foxfire (also having the same problem.)
I'm going nuts here. I am NOT a computer whizz - I work with them often, but I would definitley consider myself a moron when it comes to computer processes. So please, if you have a suggestion, pretend I'm a 6 year old or better yet a 60 year old. I'll check back often hoping for some suggestions for ryandmc that I can try as well... otherwise I think this computer is going to be target practice and we haven't even finished paying for it LOL (oh and Warcraft III runs fine - as well as DL's from pages once I get them to load so it's not the internet connection!) Thanks again!

See if this helps with your connection problem:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

And this for the shutdown:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/279713/EN-US/

Honestly it sounds like spyware still, follow these steps:

Run ADAWARE SE in my sig, then winsock fix, download any windows updates you dont have, run a virus scan if you have a scanner,

check HKEY\Local Machine\software\microsoft\windows\current\run and runservices for suspicious keys and do the same for HKEY\Current User\......(same as above). (To get to the regediter click Start--run--type"regedit" --then ^

Maye even reboot in safe mode and check your system32 folder for anything suspicious. (arrange by date modified and look at most recent)

oh and delete all your temp internet files

Just adding my 2 cents. Go to start. Control panel . Network connections. Right click on your conection and hit repair. That helped me once. Another thing. With my computer and sp2 it was all kinds of strange. Found out that i went to compaq got all my driver updates then installed sp2 it was ok. If worse comes to worse you could uninstall sp2. Just a few ideas hope help. But I do agree. Sure sounds like spyware.

If you plan to edit the Registry, you should make a backup before making any changes. At the top of the Registry window, click on the Registry menu, click Export Registry File. In the Export range panel, click All, then save your registry as Backup.

Okay, ran adware - checked through the files it found, most were cookies of sites already visited, but nothing looked like something i needed so I had it quarentine and remove all of the junk listed. I ran winsock, I already have all windows updates, virus scan came up clean. I also went to start-controlpanel-connectivity and clicked repair - rebooted the system. IE is running fine right now (usually does after reboot) So we'll see... as to the hkey/regedit thing... no idea what I would be looking for or what exactly you mean... however I'd like to see how IE does for now, and will post again later with an update. Thanks for your help guys, and I hope it works without further help!

Okay... it's starting to run slow again. It works fine for a while, but the more pages I visit the slower I.E. runs... After reboot it's okay again... SO- I'm going to look for a more detailed explanation of the HKEY thing... I still don't understand what I should be looking for, or exactly what I'm doing with that.

Whynot just switch to Mozilla Firefox browser and us IE for windows updates .

We used Mozilla for a while, the same thing happens with it as well...

Okay so I went through the hkey thing (I think I figured it out...) Everything looks to be in order (I searched the net for anything I couldn't figure out what it was...) The only two I couldn't find anything for (and they don't seem to be on my computer anymore when I go to the files they should be in...) is BAVKRSD and EXKVUX.exe (Yes, I searched through hidden files/folders as well...) can anyone tell me if it's okay to delete these?

*EDIT* Oh, I no longer get the "cannot find server" error... it just starts to run slow after viewing so many pages...