BleepingComputer.com: Browser freezing issue in IE and FF using Vista 64x

Hello All,

I have been dealing with an issue that Dell, Microsoft, and GeekSquad (PC bought trough BestBuy) have yet to help me fix. I would really appreciate some help for I have spent several weeks trying to find a remedy to my problem to no avail.

Simply stated, my PC (Dell Inspirion 545) running Windows Vista 64 has a problem maintaining browser functionality on both IE and Firefox. I will be surfing along with no problems and my browser will stop responding for reasons unknown....If I was using IE and then I try to start Firefox then firefox will not work either. Something happens, out of the blue, that effects both browsers unilaterally. The only thing that gets the browser to work again is rebooting the PC......Unfortunately, the aforementioned issue causes IE/FF exe to hang, so sometimes even shutting down takes a few minutes if not longer. Once I restart the issue is gone, but only for a matter of time. I am forced (in most cases) to reboot my PC several times throughout my workday. This is obviously causing me great mental pain, because my PC is only 2 months old and it has been doing this from the start. The issue is NOT a connectivity issue as my router still works fine and I am still able to a)ping websites, b)check Thunderbird mail client, c) use AIM. It happens on all different websites throughout the day, but never one or two in particular.

Some basic info...

Explorer 7
Vista Home premium Service pack 1

I am using
Zone Alarm Firewall
AVG Free 8.5

Malwarebytes reports no viruses or malware.

Event Log reports 2 errors pretty consistently when this issue occurs

Event ID 10
Event ID 15016

I am not sure if it is relevant, but this PC was bought at Bestbuy right off the floor (last one in stock). The PC itself runs like a top, no issues EXCEPT this particular jamming issue with the browsers.

I plead, I beg, I crawl on my knees...for the love of all things that do not suck I ask that someone help me with this issue. All the so called experts have decided to take the easy way out with me and advise I reload the OP system. It makes no sense to me that this one issue warrants me starting from scratch on my PC and going through the long drawn out process of getting all my relevant work software back on the PC.

Please help...I hope someone can feel my pain here.

Kind Regards,

James

I have just joined the site so that I could reply to this post.

I have been having the same problem with Opera freezing/crashing for months and it was driving me mad. However I think I have found the reason/answer in the last week.

I see you have ZoneAlarm installed and are running Vista. Apparently there is a known problem with ZA not being compatible with Vista and causing crashes. I posted on the Opera forums, but no-one had any suggestions. However this was reported on the Firefox forums almost a year ago.

I installed Comodo as my firewall and uninstalled ZA and I haven't had a freeze since.

I see you are also running AVG 8.5. Are you aware that V9.0 is out? There are screeds of posts on the AVG forums of people having problems with it so I decided not to upgrade and have installed Avast! AV instead.

Quite impressed with both even though I have only been running them for a week or so.