All browsers crash on my system

I am currently running xp home edition sp2, Both Browsers say they have encountered a problem and needs to close. I am connected to the internet via a router. There are 2 other computers hooked up to the router and they do not have any problems with the browsers. And even IE6 crashed when i reinstalled windows.

after a clean install of Windows with only the firewall active and no other programs installed, and 2 other machines connected to the same router work fine I'm inclined to think of a hardware or driver issue.

Things to check:
- Did you install the motherboard drivers (assuming the Ethernet port is on the mobo)?
- Try a(nother) network card.
- Swap the router ports.
- Check device manager for problems.
- Try ping from the command prompt. What happens?
- Does pop3 email work?

Kees

My problem is very similar to yours. IE 7.0, msn, and firefox will not load. The window will open and then immediately it says that it has encountered a problem and has to close. Were you able to resolve that problem? If so, could you please tell me how you did it?

Many Thanks

I believe I'm having the same problem. I came back to find my computer (Dell 8200 laptop) had restarted (possibly due to a windows xp automatic update?) and found that all browsers on the system crash on a wide variety of web pages (browsers currently are IE 7, Firefox 3, and latest Opera. In addition, avg antivirus crashes on bootup.

I've disabled all programs/tsrs loading in msconfig, used system restore to restore the system to a 3-week old reg backup, reinstalled browser plugins (flash, shockwave, uninstalled and reinstalled java). Uninstalled and reinstalled firefox 3, looked through system services for anything wierd. Firefox safe mode will not come up (think its loading one of the *bad* sites on startup) even in windows xp safe mode. This is a legit copy of xp sp 3 on a dell 8200 laptop. Wifi card is a Microsoft 54 meg pcmcia card. I've also scanned for spyware using several programs and completed most of a virus scan with AVG by uninstalling and reinstalling it. Wow just wow.

Http://www.getfirefox.com is one of the sites that crashes in all browsers and there are many many more.

I installed IE 8 and it will not even open or work with any sites. I installed Google Chrome and no sites will work at all. I installed firefox 2 and... it works!! I have a working browser!!! Any ideas anyone? I am trying to think of some sort of support file that is used by all of the above?
All of these problems started happening yesterday.
Crashes on open:
IE 8
Google Chrome
FF 3
AVG antivirus (will run when I install it if I don't restart)
Crashes on certain sites:
Opera
IE 7
Works everywhere:
Firefox 2.0
Other apps work just fine, such as photoshop, dreamweaver, so it doesn't appear to be a hardware issue unless it's with the network adapter. File sharing over network works fine.

This seems to be happening a lot recently, and while your symptoms are slightly different, check your IE settings to see if your connection has been changed to a Proxy connection.

The other cases I have seen affected only the IE browser, and also utilities like ZoneAlarm, but not other browsers. The one I know to have been resolved was where some 3rd party software seemed to have changed IE's dial-up connection to a proxy.

I don't know what your connection type is, but IE > Tools > Internet Options, Connections tab has LAN settings configuration you may want to check both for dial-up and other connections.

Mark

Yea, no proxy settings, plus the problem occurs even when I'm not connected to the internet or if the wifi card is pulled (pcmcia).

if you visit a LOCAL html-file (on your hard disk) in ALL browsers with file:// ? Or only on http:// and https:// ?
How about ftp:// ?

What happens if you use ping and tracert commands?

Kees

Ugh, today I realized that even Winamp crashes when it tries to access the web, like if I try to load a shoutcast radio as soon as it tries to load its little framed ad it crashes.

I did save a local file, saved the html from getfirefox.com locally. As you may recall from above, some browsers crash as soon as they're open, so I can't try going to a local file. A couple browsers, IE 7 and Opera crash only if they go to certain sites, such as getfirefox.com. I saved that file locally, and found those two browsers still crash when it's accessed. After much trial and error I discovered that if I remove everything between the <form></form> tags neither of those browsers crash when trying to access that file and display the remainder properly.

So I guess somehow my browsers ability to display forms is badly messed up? HUH?!!

If I remove this html code I can load that test page in opera and IE 7
~~~~~~~
<form id="moz_global_search" action="/en-US/search/" method="get"><div>
<input name="hits_per_page" id="hits_per_page" value="" type="hidden">
<input name="hits_per_site" id="hits_per_site" value="" type="hidden">
<input name="query" id="query" value="" type="text"><input src="temp_files/search-button.png" id="submit" value="Search" type="image">
</div></form>
~~~~~~
and
~~~~~~
<form id="lang_form" dir="ltr" method="get" action=""><div>
<label for="flang">Other languages:</label>

<select id="flang" name="flang" dir="ltr" onchange="this.form.submit()"> <option value="ca">Catal

The common factor in a number of posts about this problem seems to be AVG. I had the same problem and cured it by completely removing AVG. Strangely enough, it had been working well for over a year. I replaced it with Microsoft Security Essentials, and so far everything's working well. Both IE and Firefox have stopped crashing.