URL hangs in MSIE address bar

My organization's IT dept has given up on this one. They could not figure it out, so they came down and installed Firefox on my PC. I do *not* experience this same issue in Netscape or with the newly-installed Firefox........ only IE.

A few weeks ago, my hdd crashed. They were able to load my backed-up data onto the new hdd, so I have, essentially, a new hdd, with all of my existing data. No third-party software apps, all [system] settings are at defaults.

Yet, when I try to use MSIE (6.0.2800), I encounter the following problem:

1) Open IE. Single left/primary click on the URL in the address bar.
2) Address bar turns blue with highlighting. I can simply type a desired URL over this (overwrite).
3) I type a URL into the address bar (www.majorgeeks.com, for example).
4) I hit the "Enter" key. Browser should process a "GET_HTTP" request (or whatever it is that takes the user to the specified URL) and direct me to that URL.
5) Instead of the above, it just "sits there." URL turns blue [again] with highlighting. Flashing vertical pipe - | - cursor sits there flashing......... and mocking me.

After searching online, the IT dept was only able to come up with (something I had already tried, repeatedly) "restart your PC and the problem should be fixed." It isn't. Warm boot, cold boot, same issue. I found essentially the same thing via my searches. And this one for the Maxthon browser: http://forum.maxthon.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t13481.html

As a workaround, I have been typing a search string into Google (the "Advanced Search" is my homepage) and clicking on the appropriate hyperlink in the results list. I should note that I can type stuff into Google, hit "Enter," and it takes right off, finding what I need. It is *only* when typing a URL into the address bar that I encounter this issue.

Sometimes, when I type a URL into the address bar and hit "Enter," after just "sitting there" for a minute or so (literally), it will *finally* process the request and browse to the specified URL.

System specs are as follows:

Win2kPro (SP4); 1.7GHz P4 CPU; 512MB RAM; 32MB ATI Rage 128 Ultra GPU; 30GB 5400rpm hdd.

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks folks.

P.S. This may or may not be related, but when I 2x click on "My Computer," I have noticed that the "My Computer" window will open, but there will be nothing displayed for about 10-20 seconds. The mouse pointer icon will display as the hourglass, indicating that it is working/thinking/etc.

 

Have you tried going to your Internet Properties/Advanced tab/Restore Defaults button? Close IE then re-test.

 

Also you can try this