IE6 Constant Page Can't Be Displayed Errors

Hi. I hope you can help me!

I have a used computer with Windows XP SP2 and IE 6. I do not have a boot disk.

Three months ago, I went to www.pcnineoneone.com and followed its instructions on how to speed up my computer. That's when my problem started.

When I get on the internet, I see a "Page Can't Be Displayed" error when I:
(1) click on a link or type in the URL for certain secure sites (not all secure sites, but some that I need to use).
(2) click on a Google ad.
(3) click on a regular site link or an ad in another search engine (Goodsearch).
(4) view a site's homepage that has any ads placed on it (like Yahoo homepage).

A couple of days ago, I began having real problems with IE 6 not even loading up. I downloaded Firefox, thinking that the PCBD errors might go away, but they didn't.

I read through the Malware Removal Guide and performed all of the scans including HiJackThis. I have attached the requested logs.

I would be so grateful for any assistance you could offer!

Thank you,
Kimberly

 

Hi Kimberly!
Welcome to Major Geeks!
You are probably attaching the rest of the logs now.
abri

 

Hi again. Please find attached the second set of logs.

 

Hi kimberly!

I think you might be suffering Yahoo Search Protection, which is a legitimate program, but before we do anything with that, I'll see if there might be anything else. It takes awhile to read through the logs, so please allow some time.

An added note here: You did something here wrong: C:\Program Files\analyse.exe\HijackThis.exe
Under Program Files, you should have a folder called HijackThis or HJT and within that folder, the program hijackthis.exe should be renamed to analyse.exe. Please rename this and post a fresh log.

Thanks!

abri

 

Hi, again.

So sorry for my mistake! Attached is a new log.

Kimberly

 

Hi kimberly!

Your logs don't look bad and it's unlikely your problem is related to malware. I would like to ask you if you've tried going back to a restore point dated before the visit you made to the website you mentioned. You would lose any programs you installed, but you would not lose your data. This would be my first recommendation. I noticed a lot of things came onto your computer around the 29th of August. Do you remember when you went to the website you mentioned? Could this have been the time? If so, pick a date a couple of days before that and see if you can restore your computer settings to what they were then. After that, I have a set of instructions for you to follow, but I want to wait with them until I find out if a restore point might work, because this would be the easiest way to get where you want to be.

If you need instructions for using system restore, please do the following. Go to Start / All Programs / Accessories / System Programs and click on System Restore. Then follow the instructions for restore computer to an earlier point. Try this and let me know if this does anything. Try and remember the exact date when you went to that website, so you don't end up choosing a restore point after you were there. I have some instructions for you to follow after we try this, but if you do them first, you would end up having to do them all over again.

abri

 

Hi.

I tried to do a system restore, but the earliest restore point was Aug. 29. I visited the site in early June, so restoring back to Aug. 29 won't be helpful. I should have sought your help sooner. :cry

Do you have any other suggestions?

Thank you,
Kimberly

 

Hi kimberly!

This is lengthy, so you should read it through a couple of times. As an alternative to the more extensive instructions below, you could ask at nineoneone what they tweak and ask them if they can advise you how to undo their changes. Whether they can help you or not, you could bring any information you get from them back to the software or networking forums here and let the people here think what results those changes could have had on your computer and how they might be corrected. The below is more what I would do myself and it has less to do with correcting tweaks and more to do with on my own personal experience with internet security suites and browsers. Whatever you end up doing, please get several opinions first.

This discussion will have to be continued in either the sotware or networking forums, because it's not malware related. Your thread may end up getting moved or we'll ask you to begin a new one in software or hardware. Please understand that my suggestions are what I would do. For the finish of your malwre thread, I have a set of instructions with some minor things in it that can be fixed, but part of my suggestion would involve your going back to your earliest restore point, because you mentioned that your computer has recently taken a turn for the worse. Your computer was not where you wanted it to be at the restore point we talked about August 29th, but if I understand you correctly, it was better than where it is now. Is that correct?

You have an IE7 log under C:\Windows, but you are using IE6. You have logs for Windows updates which you don't have on your computer. I'm wondering if you installed some of the updates and then uninstalled them? You have a lot of internet security, including McAfee security suite which includes a proxy service. You have Windows Defender, maybe the AVG Antispyware software we use on a trial basis, the yahoo settings. You probably also changed some things when you went to the website back in May. None of your anti-virus/anti-spyware programs are unusual, but it's possible that anywhere in this process, some setting or settings got changed that are causing the page can't display message. It could be in the firewall, it could be a registry change from when you visited the nineoneone website. It could be a conflict between programs.

You do not have a boot disk. Can you get one? Do you have one of the computers that were sold without a boot or recovery disk? If so, you can sometimes get one by calling the manufacturer of your computer and telling them you need one for a repair install. You have to be able to produce the information regarding your original registration, which usually means your name and address and the computer's serial number. Recovery disks are useful for restoring settings to the default. However, there are other ways to do that. If you can get a recovery disk, I would try a repair install which is something the people in the software forum can help you with. This would be the easiest way to approach the problem you're having. If you can't do that, you could consider the following, but I would ask several people for a second opinion.

I would back up all my data and then go back to an earlier restore point where the computer was not working perfectly, but at least better than it is now, probably the August 29th one. If nothing got worse with my computer's condition between the restore point on August 29th and the next one, I would probably choose the next one. I would then go to MajorGeeks.com and download only the installation programs for AVG free and Zone Alarm free, but not install them. I would then disconnect from the internet and uninstall everything that has to do with internet security (one program at a time via add/remove programs, rebooting between each one and keeping a record of what was uninstalled in what order). I would turn off Windows firewall, remove all McAfee, stop Windows Defender (you should be able to stop this if you go to add/remove programs and look under add/remove Windows Components - or stop it under services.msc - it's called Windows Defender\MSASCui.exe - but do not remove anything just by deleting it from Program Files and I would not try uninstalling it via an update uninstall either), remove Spybot S&D, remove any toolbars that are in add/remove programs. I would then run CCleaner. If everything is still working, I would then install AVG free and ZoneAlarm free and reconnect my computer to the internet. I would set Firefox as the default browser. I would then allow programs ZoneAlarm has to give permission to, so I could update my AVG and allow it to update. If I got the windows can't be displayed problem, I would simply close the browser and continue with the next thing, (making notes of each thing, what order, when I rebooted, etc). I would open IE next and check which version of IE I'm using. If it is not IE7, I would go to the software or networking forums and tell them I want to update IE6 to IE7 and I do NOT want to keep my settings from IE6, but I want them to be overwritten by IE7. Ask them how to be sure that this is done. This is a very important step, because it's the one point where you might be able to override changes and force the default settings back into place. MAKE SURE your Windows updates are not set to download automatically and see if someone in either of those forums can tell you exactly how to update your browser WITHOUT taking over the old settings. Everything in Internet Explorer is set up to make sure you don't lose your settings. In your case, you WANT to lose your settings.. Also, remember, if your default browser is set to Firefox, your programs will open that browser automatically. To get Windows updates, you have to use Internet Explorer, so you have to open IE manually.

I would then install Firefox 2.0, also taking whatever steps are necessary to keep it at the default settings. Make sure to attempt only custom installs and always tell it to NOT keep your settings. Again, ask in the software or networking forums what the best way to do this is.

After this I would then change the startpage on both IE7 and FF2.0 to Google (which has no ads) and see if these load properly. I would then test a website which didn't work before and see if my faithful page not loading problem is still there. Whether it is still there or not, I would simply note in my notes. Then I would attempt to go to Microsoft's update page (MAKE SURE THE UPDATES ARE NOT SET TO LOAD AUTOMATICALLY!) and I would allow it to tell me which Windows updates I'm missing, read the description on each one and decide which are necessary for my computer. To do this, you have to make sure Windows Updates is NOT set to automatically install updates. I would not at this point do any updates for the Windows Malicious Software program or for Windows Defender or allow them to install or update. I would attempt to do any updates for IE7.0.

If all of the above fail, I would decide how my computer is otherwise working. If nothing has changed for either the better or worse I would decide whether I want to return to the restore point where I originally started back with McAfee et al (going back to the restore point you left is one of the choices in the restore menu under System Restore), or if it seems to be working better; I would go to the software and networking people with my notes and tell them what I've done so far and ask them how to check what things might have been tweaked by the suggestions followed at the nineoneone website. See if they can tell you what the default setting would be for the normal timeout time before the message you get displays. It's possible that the time limit was shortened by one of the tweaks you did.

If by chance anything in this whole process caused my computer to work the way it used to, I would probably stop there and go no further, simply do a defrag and pretend nothing bad ever happened. I would then return to Majorgeeks Malware forum and get the rest of the instructions they have for me, which include removing the Windows Messenger using the Windows Messenger Removal tool and fixing a couple of HijackThis entries. There's no point in doing this at this point, because if you decide to go back to an earlier restore point, those changes will get erased, so save them for later.

Please read this a couple of times and let me know if you have any questions. In the end, doing the above would mainly give you more information. It's possible that in trying to correct the problem, you have created a few additional ones, so information gathering at this point would be useful. Please also take the time to discuss things with several other people in the software and networking forums. Some computer problems end up being easier to correct than one would have thought, but finding the right place to make the correction is the trick.

abri