It all started a few years ago with Yahoo Groups. If I type in www.groups.yahoo.com, all I get is a screen full of HTML. If I hit refresh, it’s fine. If I click on a link, back to HTML. Hit refresh, it’s fine.
I’ve cleaned out my temp files umpteen times since then and to no improvement. I thought I may have had some glitchy file in there making things a mess.
In the last few months, my computer has now decided Amazon is off limits. I could live with Yahoo being a pain, but being a book addict makes living without Amazon torture, especially since people tend to link there in book threads.
When I type in Amazon.com, I used to get a popup that would tell me that Explorer couldn’t open the site. Now I just get a blank screen. Hitting “refresh” does nothing.
I’m on WIN 98 and using IE 5.0 with all the patches. (Those patches were added recently when I asked a friend if he knew what was wrong with the computer, so I know that’s not the problem.)
Any suggestions? Would a new browser help or is there some deranged file in my computer?
If you’ve been running the same OS for a few years now I’d say you were way overdue for a save data>format>re-install procedure. Windows 98/ME installs tend to get corrupted over time and should usually be scrubbed and re-installed ever 12-18 months or so depending on how intensive your use is.
Just DL’d and tried Netscape and it’s not working. Arg!
And yes, I really need to wipe this computer clean and start afresh. There is no shortage of weird glitches on this thing. Unfortunately, all my software is in storage in another country.
Thanks for the hints. I’m probably just out of luck until I can give this machine an enema.
Have you thought of getting rid of your temp files, emptying your recycle bin, running ScanDisk, running Defrag, and possibly searching for some freeware/shareware disk utilities just to see how well (or sick) you computer may be?
** Joools**: The first link me gave me “Page not Found”. The second link gave me an Amazon page, but the links would either not work or just give me a blank page.
**Mr Urt **: I’ll give Opera a shout (hehe) tomorrow.
Again, thanks all. I think it’s just my computer needing a face lift.
I’m wondering: what is your home page? I’m wondering if you’re starting on some fancy page that runs some weirdo script that then causes problems further down the line.
In my case, I set my home page to about:blank (via Tools, Internet Options).
I had the same problem a while back, only much more annoying… Reinstalling IE doesn’t help, but this is finally what I did: http://support.microsoft.com/search/preview.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q181599 . I would upgrade to IE6, if I were you, even if you’re going to use Netscape.
Another thing I discovered is that creating a new User in Windows 98 fixed the problem, leading me to believe it’s in the HKey>Current User part of the registry, but I was never able to pinpoint the problem exactly.
Sometimes on a rare occassion, its the dns number you are using in your dialup setting. My ISP once changed mine without letting me know & when I called them about what was going on they gave me the new numbers.
It could also be your ISP. My cousin lives in a small city with limited options for ISP’s. One he tried would not connect to any Microsoft sites, the owner of the ISP did not like MS and would not allow access to it through his ISP. AOL also raised a stink a few years ago for blocking access to Barnes and Noble because Amazon was a paying sponsor, B&N was not.
Here’s something that’s only tengentally related to your problem, but if you want to use amazon without having to wait for all the graphics, popus, and crap to load, try
It’s intended for PDAs, phones, and people with text-only browsers, but it’s a helluva lot faster than the bloated version, so I use it, even behind a T3 at work.
