One day the desktop just stopped running. It would not turn back on. The lights would come on momentarily then back off.
My son cleaned the dust from inside and now it boots up, and runs windows fine. EVERYTHING seems to work fine except it won't open IE or Firefox. (Firefox sometimes gets the Google page but won't open websites!)
It's Windows XP.
When I try IE, it says "Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close"
When I try Firefox it usually says "CONNECTION interrupted"
In the start menu, I go to:
connect to/show all connections/local AREA connection...
status connected. Device name NVIDIA nForce network Networking controller
WE have a wireless router connected to it and our internet WORKS fine on the other computers.
What can I do?
Thanks,
Jim

I uninstalled Firefox and downloaded and reinstalled it. It now works. After that the update thing for IE8 popped up. It looks like it's running but doesn't seem to be getting anywhere. That should only take a few seconds huh? Is't been about 10 minutes.
Should I uninstall IE and reinstall?Sounds like an add-on is preventing IE from running correctly.

Check this article out http://support.microsoft.com/gp/pc_ie_intro

Try resetting IE -> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923737Thanks for your reply,
While I was cleaning up the drive, an IE8 update came up. I actually downloaded IE8 and saved it but did not install. It started working after the update finished!
I installed ccleaner & superantispyware and ran them. I got rid of some dead weight and did a defrag.
Now it seems like everything is good.
Thanks again,
Jim