Help with IE, Media Player (Kinda long, sorry)

Chocoholic

Hi everyone.
I have AOL broadband for internet connection but since I'm used to Internet Explorer this is what I use for viewing web pages. For a few weeks AOL has disconnected the internet connection at will or if left idle for a few hours, something happens which causes Internet Explorer not to function. For example if I leave MSE page open in IE and come back a few hours later, pressing refresh brings back a blank page or the page cannot be found. Signing off AOL and signing back in usually makes it work again but it's inconvenient to do this if I have downloads in progress (winmx ). AOL have alternately told me things to try and taken no responsibility saying it is a problem with IE/Windows.

Yesterday IE completely froze on me: I couldn't get the sign in page for hotmail and wasn't able to post on MSE or send PM's because when hovering over the message box the mouse pointer remained (so I couldn't type in this box). I downloaded Mozilla and am using that to view (and post on) MSE and it seems to be fine. Unfortunately it means that I can't have 2 different hotmails accounts open at the same time (as I used to with IE). It takes a bit of getting used to and to be honest I am more comfortable with Internet Explorer. The post preview on MSE brings up only one line in Mozilla whereas in IE it was a paragraph.

Also Media player refuses to work now - message pops up "An internal application error has occurred". (Have no idea if this is related).

Among the things AOL said might have caused the problem was spyware so I have run AOL spyware, Spybot and Adaware but this hasn't helped the IE or Media Player problem. Does anyone know what is happening/has happened? Any idea if there is anything I can do please?

Thanks,
Choc

Rex_Mundi

Depending on your version of windows try this.

W95/98/98SE/2000
control panel>add remove programs> highlight internet explorer, click add remove. One of the choices will be repair internet explorer. Tick this and follow the prompts, you will have to restart when you finish.

WXP
http://www.theeldergeek.com/repair_ie6.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;318378

Try this first, see if it helps. Are you given an error number with your media player problem? If you are let us know what it is. It will give us a more specific idea what the problem is.

Chocoholic

Rex_Mundi, thanks for your help. I will try the links you provided (have some downloads in progress so will wait until they're finished). Although I have another problem in that I can't seem to run a search: the puppy appears on the blue background on the left of the screen but there is nothing else. In the instructions following your links I will need to search for a file but it doesn't seem as though I'll be able to.

I'm using Windows XP and the version of Media Player was version 10 I think. There isn't an error number just the error message "An internal application error has occurred" when I click on the icon or try to play music through it.

Any other ideas please? (Real Player doesn't seem to play everything ).

Choc

opportunity_cost

See this newsgroups post for a solution to the Windows Media Player problem.

Are you running an up-to-date Internet Explorer? Check here. Get SP1 (if you've not installed that already) + all the Security and Cumulative Updates available to you while you're there.

Chocoholic

Thanks Opportunity_Cost . That was so easy, even I managed it. The Windows search function is as before, Media Player is working without a problem (touch wood) and IE is fine. I didn't have to log off or restart. Thank you very much.

Choc

opportunity_cost

No prob. Glad it's working.