What did you have your computer "serviced" for? Sounds odd.

If the browsers aren't acting as you wish, you maybe should have asked the "service" person to fix it.

Yeh, sounds pretty odd.
Since you're having problems with both browsers, it sounds more global - perhaps a registry setting.
For Firefox, I would look to see if you have any add-ons or extensions that might be interfering. Otherwise, I'd think to first set it back to defaults and/or try running in safe-mode to see if that helps at all. Then, reinstall Firefox, if all else fails.

If it's happening only after being serviced, it's really something the service company should fix.

There isn't a cornsnake running around in there, is there ?

Another thing you can do is reset IE at tools internet options/advanced then reset and all will go back to normal, for IE

Actually this has happened to me, but only very occasionally, and almost always when I've maxed out all the memory onboard. Firefox is infamous for memory leaks (i.e, hanging on unnecessarily to memory), although in your case it's IE, and more a scripting error w/ FF.

You did try rebooting, right ?

My fan was not working right and overheating so I took it for repair. However, I take the computer in once or twice a year to get rid of anything I don't need anyway, I don't know all the technicalities of computers so it is worth the $40 to have them delete the garbage and anything that wasn't caught by an antivirus. SnidelyWhiplash , it is pretty common for those of us less tech saavy to take it to a professional. And the problems happened after the visit to the tech shop, not before. They updated a lot of my programs so I am not used to them all yet.

I think he meant, what was the thing you were trying to get fixed when you took it in for servicing, and the problem "sounds odd".

kbarb, I checked, all 14 snakes are in their vivariums, none in the computer!

When I took the computer in they switched me from FF to IE which I didn't ask them to do, but since both are on the computer they probably didn't know which I used and went with the more popular choice.

And yes, I have rebooted almost everyday, I always shut down the computer when I am done.

I was having the fan replaced, a few of the blades were broken and causing the computer to get really hot.

It could be that they updated IE, and when the prompt came up to make it the default browser, they clicked OK.

It turns out, after a little googling, that actually might be the cause of the problem. As written in an MS article, a cause for that problem could be "The setting where you choose what web browser that you want to use is corrupted." But that applied to IE v9 and earlier.
Nevertheless, you might want to google for "links not working in internet explorer" and see what might be relevant.

For example :
Fix: Internet Explorer Does Not Open Links

Still, you might tell your servicing company the problems, if in fact those problems weren't present before dropping it off, and ask them what they did to cause it to happen. Hopefully they're an honest shop.

After you get it all fixed, see if you can set Firefox (FF) back to the default browser.