IE 7 hangs

I have a client who's IE7 just hangs up and refuses to go to any selected site. It appears to be totally random occurrence.
If it hangs, you can't hit the internet any more. I tried PINGing a few places and nothing. I CAN ping the router, but anything outside the router seems to be gone.
But (and here's the weird part), if you go to Mozilla it will log right in to any site. Then you close Mozilla and IE7 begins working again.

Anyone ever heard of this??? This client is not very computer literate and is clearly frustrated by IE7. She threatened to call someone else for her computer repair work if I don't figure this one out. It's a vain threat but we really need to solve this issue for them. I've un-installed and re-installed IE just to make sure there is no trouble there. I've checked for BHO's and scanned her system and I'm quite sure there are no virus issues.

Anyone have a clue why suddenly IE would stop connecting, then magically be repaired by logging in with Mozilla?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Crusher75060

 

Vista or XP? Reinstall both browsers? Run chkdsk and scannow?

 

Thank you for the reply. It is XP and IE7.

Mozilla works every time as though there is nothing wrong. I just can't figure out why Mozilla fixes the problem. If IE quits working, running Mozilla then shutting it down allows IE to work again. Why?

 

Because there's some mix-up somewhere? And in order to fix it a reinstall could help. Also try resetting IE from the Tools menu.

 

OK... I removed Mozilla completely. I removed IE and reinstalled it. I still have the same issue. Intermitantly IE7 just hangs and seems to do something that disables internet connection.

Ping only sees the router and nothing outside it.

So I tried opening windows explorer and typed in the url there and bingo.. back on the internet... IE just sux... Anyone have a clue?

 

That really is strange...