Need computer help.

[MadMudder]

Hey guys I need some help in fixing a problem with my parents desktop computer. Its the by far the wierdist thing i have ever seen on computers. Its a custom built one by southern PC and its got windows XP. Its like a 5yr old dinosaur and its been wiped and de-fraged and crap more times then i care to count. But just recently we cant get the internet to come up on the computer. I dont mean like connect, I mean the internet browser will not come up. When you doubble click the icon or program from anywhere the loading hour glass appears for anywhere from 1-6seconds..theres a little processor noise in the computer and then nothing. So far I have tried:

Restarting it
Complete Turn off / back on
I swept it with a very up to date program Spy Sweeper by Webroot. It turned up 9 viruses and my mom said one was a trojan worm. They got quarantined.
Checked shields on Spy Sweeper to check blockages.
Reset system defaults and accesses to make sure IE was the browser.
Downloaded IE 8 from my laptop, burned it onto a CD and then installed it on their computer. When i opened up IE a white screen came up like it was about to load. It said Internet Explorer at the top left but then the screen went away after about 3 seconds and i was back to where i tried to open it at.
Swept and checked the program files for Internet Explorer and Firefox (yes the problem is the exact same for firefox.).
Ran a search for a repair for IE in all the folders. No dice there.



Thats really all I can think of doing. I was planning on checking the windows firewall but security center in the control pannel is saying that security center has been turned off and it needs to be turned back on but I have no idea how. I also cant imagine that firewall would be blocking internet explorer.

Im logged in as the system admin and everything. Im really at a loss right now. Im not a computer wizard but im not an idiot either. Just give me a good idea of what to do and ill figure out what exaticly to do.

As usual any and all help is appreciated. Thanks.

[D33411]

The only thing I can think of as a cure is give your parents your laptop and go buy yourself a new one.  I can't think of anything you haven't tried.  Good luck.  Dawn

[asmart82]

Try downloading Firefox or Chrome with your laptop and installing.  See if one of those will open up!  If they had a virus, then I am sure it targeted IE anyways.