the internet is KILLING MY LAPPY!!

[moogen]

hey folks. like the title said, the internet is kicking my laptop's butt. everytime i try to run internet explorer, or any other program that accesses the internet (i.e. software updates, etc), my pointer turns into an hourglass and nothing else happens (The Hourglass Of Death). i tried running anti-virus, remove all spyware, still no go. but! everything works fine in safe mode w/ networking. so i tried removing as many startup items as possible, still gettin' THOD. any geniuses out there who can help stupid little ol' me? thanks in advance!!!
moogs

running a...
piii 1.3ghz compaq lappy
winxp home sp2
believe my building is using dsl
using onboard wired lan card

 

[Slikkster]

When did it start? If running XP, why not try System Restore and set it back to a time before the problem occurred.

 

[moogen]

hmmm, i thought of that...yet didn't do it will try it now and let ya know!!

 

[moogen]

hey all!
did a couple of system restores, it was a no go. any other ideas what could be causing this??

 

[btcomm1]

Hmm, system restore will usually take care of malware, but install AVG anti spyware, go into safe mode with networking and update it. Then do a full system scan and see how much crap it finds. If it doesn't find anything then perhaps you have a firewall that is malfunctioning, uninstall and reinstall it.