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I'm running Vista x64 on my machine. I rarely use IE8 but occasionally have to for certain sites (Firefox is my default). I've noticed sometimes I'll open the browser & it will not load a page (including home page when I first open it). During this time the IE tabs add-on in Firefox also fails to work. I have yet to figure out why this happens.

The only fix I've come across so far is just restarting. Fixes the issue every time, but I'd like to know why its happening & if there's a more permanent fix. Anyone out there having the same problem or know why I would experience this?

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Update: Seems like this is a rather unique problem because the suggestions I'm getting don't apply. I'm thinking I'll try uninstalling/reinstalling IE8. Course now that I'm having trouble uninstalling it I think there must be some weird underlying issue at hand... – kpoehls Jul 16 at 15:12

closed by kpoehls, Jeff Atwood♦ Jul 18 at 4:29

5 Answers

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It might be related to your browser plugins. I have often seen Adobe Flash Player causing this. Try removing Flash (use Adobe Flash Uninstaller) and reinstall it after a restart.

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You might be describing the same problem I've had with IE6 and IE7 (haven't tried IE8 yet). Here is what I have found:

If you open IE, and don't wait for it to start loading your home page, then for some reason IE seems to be confused, and I can't browse anywhere. I have to close IE out completely and open it up again, and wait for at least the title to appear of my home page. After that, it is fine.

Complete speculation here, but it seems to me that IE gets confused if it is trying to create a network connection, and you stop it or try to go somewhere else. It's like all subsequent browsing actions already assume that a network connection exists, but IE was unable to complete it's initialization, and so all bets are off.

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this happens when i open it & wait for the home page to load as well – kpoehls Jul 15 at 14:41
Darn. I was thinking you had the same problem that I have always had with IE. Good luck, and you might want to try out Rytis' solution. Oh! Next time it happens, bring up task manager (press control-shift-escape) and see if you can find "Acroread32.exe" in your processes list. I've seen this process cause many many odd and annoying errors. – Matt Dawdy Jul 15 at 15:31
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Use a blank homepage. I have less trouble when using IE, if there is none at all.

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I've seen this happen for several reasons, but the most common is what Rytis said: plugins. I would try running IE in no-addons mode to see if that fixes your issue. See here: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/run-internet-explorer-8-in-no-add-ons-mode

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Many times when using the 64 bit version of any Windows operating system, I experiance crashes with the 64 bit IE. I would try to use the 32 bit version. That is what I do (I have 64 bit Vista that I use for playing games).

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