if you do not have a second browser on that pc I would put one on there asap, should your IE become non-functional you would have no ability to get online, it is always a good idea to have at least 2 browsers on every pc. I use and recommend firefox. You may find you like firefox much better, there are many great add-ons for it. Here is a link that might be useful: firefox

should not make any difference the service pack. Many computers simply could not install sp3 but if you have done all windows updates you pretty much have the biggest part of sp3 from those regular updates. I would try to power down and power up in sequence to see if that helps. power off to everything, computers, modem, router, everything connected. Let sit 5 mins, then power up in this order modem first let it get fully lit up, power up router let it get fully lit up, power up computers let them fully load till all activity has stopped then try it. Do you have a firewall on it? if so it could be something in the firewall settings, but if the power sequence does not work I would just try a quick system restore to the date when it was all working fine that may reset what ever got changed.

Compatibility Compatibility issues with websites Website compatibility Windows Internet Explorer 8 improves browser interoperability and advances the Web by delivering a better implementation of web standards. Although this is a move in the right direction, you might encounter compatibility issues with some sites that still rely on the behavior of earlier versions of Internet Explorer. Common symptoms of site compatibility problems are out-of-place menus, images, or text. Would this be the problem I was having? I keep getting the error message Sorry but IE has encountered a problem and needs to shut down,sorry,bla,bla. and had to shut down IE and start over. It did not shut down whole computer and have to re boot but just IE. I uninstalled IE8 and went back to IE7 and all is well.Thanks

Sometimes I don't know why users have problems with certain tasks and why some seldom do. Who knows? I went old school on the IE8 update on this Vista system as I am on the antique DUN and didn't want to download it more than once. After backing up my Quicken I cleaned up the system with CCleaner and some of the tools provided in Advanced System Care. I disabled my AVG and Vista firewall then connected to the update through the Windows Update utility. No problems donwloading, installing or using. And yes I, enabled my AV and firewall again. DA