# What's wrong with my computer? Help! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 9, 2003, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-my-computer-help/187320 "2003-07-09T21:00:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Padmaraga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@Padmaraga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padmaraga)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-my-computer-help/187320/1 "2003-07-09T21:00:50Z")
For the past month, I’ve had problems with internet sites displaying a screenful of code at the top of the page, or getting error messages when I click on links, and similar things. It’s happening on most websites, and mine is the only computer in my office that does this. I had my husband take a look at it yesterday, and he said he’d never seen anything like it; we thought there must be something wrong in my setup that was causing this. I do run Norton AV daily, including the upgrades; I also use Webwasher and Spybot. Does anyone have knowledge of this kind of problem and possibly (hopefully!) its solution? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-my-computer-help/187320/2 "2003-07-09T22:08:40Z")
What kind of computer & browser & operating system? Your office IS or IT dept should handle it. ---
**Author:** ![Padmaraga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@Padmaraga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padmaraga)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-my-computer-help/187320/3 "2003-07-09T22:56:31Z")
This is a rinky-dink, 9-person company, **handy** - no IS or IT dept. We have a consultant we call (though his response time sucks), but frankly I lost faith in him when I heard he has our server files on the “wrong side of the firewall”. The boss is too ignorant & too cheap to hire someone good. It’s just a generic/clone PC with a pentium processor, Windows 98, and IE. I realize that’s probably not enough to go on, but I thought if someone had run across this before & recognized it…hey, I’ll take a shot at getting an answer. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-my-computer-help/187320/4 "2003-07-09T23:09:32Z")
Assuming you are using IE 6.0 (5.0 or 5.5 will be similar): 1. [Download IE 6.0](http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/enthusiast/default.asp). Click Save and select a folder to save the installation executable to. 2. [Remove IE](http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9903/09/removeie.idg/) 3. Install the downloaded IE. This is the surest way to guarantee that any problems are completely fixed. ---
**Author:** ![Padmaraga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@Padmaraga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padmaraga)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2003, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-my-computer-help/187320/5 "2003-07-09T23:20:11Z")
Thanks, **Q.E.D.** , I’ll get right on it! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-my-computer-help/187320/6 "2003-07-10T14:14:23Z")
Padmaraga, I like to use more than one browser in case things like this happen. Then I can use the other one & you can have Netscape & IE on the same machine & import bookmarks between them. Be sure to save your bookmarks before changing to the new browser just in case.