Persistent Browsing Errors in IE6

[Kov-Ice]

I've searched around as much as my tempramental browser will let me on this subject. I have PC-Cillin running, I've updated and run both Ad-aware and Spybot, I've run regsvr32 urlmon.dll, I've reset IE web settings, but this continues:

When browsing, nearly every other time I navigate to a page I get an error. Often it is HTTP 404, sometimes it gives me a Google url not found error, sometime a File not found error from PC Media, Inc., sometimes I get redirected to an error page from a site that's been previously visited (albeit several days or weeks ago) such as amazon or a teacher's website my wife visits.

All of these things have happened to me when browsing here at PCMech, tho they happen elsewhere too. Another interesting twist is that while browsing here, the "forum.pcmech.com" in the Address bar is replaced by my home page site of "stltoday.com", yet it still will take me to the PCMech page requested (if I'm lucky that time).

OK, sorry for the book, but now I could use any suggestions for isolating and fixing this. Ideas? Thx.

[Redo40]

Have you tried repairing IE?

[Kov-Ice]

Is that something that can be done in XP? How does one do it? Thx.

[Pancake]

Go into Add Remove and click change/delete IE.It will then give you the option to delete or repair.

[Kov-Ice]

After hitting change/remove, it just gives a box that says something liike "this will remove IE Q9857968, uninstall now?" with yes / no buttons. No repair option, tho...

[Pancake]

OK. try this option

http://www.theeldergeek.com/repair_r...e_and_oe_6.htm

[Redo40]

Sorry about that, Kov-Ice, I read your sig and assumed it was 98.

Definitely try sfc /scannow and see if it will repair it, although I haven't had much luck in the past with IE, you might get lucky.

If not, try a repair of XP.

[Kov-Ice]

No problem, Redo. The sfc command asks for XP Professional CD (I have Home, btw), but it won't recognize it when it's in. Is this because the CD-ROM drive letter has changed from the letter it originally was when XP was installed? Is this similar to what is said on the elder site:

In all likelihood you will be prompted to insert the Windows XP CD ROM. If you don't have it available there is no point in continuing unless you have the files available on your hard drive and have changed the location of the XP installation files in the registry. If you do have the files copied to the hard drive, the default install location may be modified using the registry edit shown below. [Start] [Run] [Regedit] Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup Modify/Create the Value Data Type(s) and Value Name(s) as detailed below. Data Type: REG_SZ (String Value) // Value Name: SourcePath Setting for Value Data: [Set using the path to the installation files, i.e. G:\WXPCCP_EN] Exit Registry and Reboot

with the exception that instead of a change to the hdd install location I have to change the original CD drive location?? I'm obviously not well-schooled in this, so is this close or way off base? What change would I make to get it to see my Rom drive (R: )? Thx.

[Redo40]

Have you looked at that string to see if it is pointing to the cdrom correctly? If not, do so and yes you could change it to the correct letter (R) if needed. That is usually the path to the cdrom drive.

[Kov-Ice]

In the string mentioned above, my registry has entries for Installation Sources with a Data path of C:\WINDOWS\avdv.drv G:\ , ServicePackSourcePath has Data path of G:\ , and SourcePath also has G:\ . I guess that G was my ROM drive name before, so then should I edit all of those entries changing to R:\ ? That should allow the System File Checker to pick up, right?

[Redo40]

Yes, change all the G's to R's and it should point windows to your drive.

Oh yeah, be sure to backup the registry before making any changes...just to be safe.

[Kov-Ice]

I was just going to make a hive file backup of just that string. Is it better to backup the entire registry instead, or is that what System Restore does anyway?

[Redo40]

I would just backup the registry, that way you don't have to worry about what programs or settings that have been changed since the restore point, as System Restore backs up everything.