Problems opening IE8 on XP SP3

Hi

I was trying to help a friend with her laptop the other day. She was on XP SP3 and IE8 was just showing 'Connecting...'. The line was active as her Outlook Express was downloading emails.

Given she was on XP SP3, I thought I would remove that and re-try. No luck. I then uninstalled IE8 and installed IE7. Still no luck. So I told her to use Safari or Firefox instead and they're fine.

I just wondered if anyone might have an inkling what might be causing the problem. I just hope in the meantime that she doesn't access sites that only open in IE!

If it helps, the laptop has Spybot and AVG on.

Cheers

Tim