BleepingComputer.com: I/E 7 multiple iexplore tasks hogging memory

Whenever I log into iexplore there are multiple iexplore sessions on my task manager...sometimes up to 4. One of them will typically uses more than 100,000 k and my system is either really slow or hangs entirely. This is as soon as I log in on my homepage before I have had the opportunity to do anything so it's not a situation of multiple tabs. Can my browser be hijacked? If so, how do I find the culprit and get rid of it? I have already run hijackthis and have a log but have no idea what I'm looking at and need help. Thanks for any light you can shed on this.

Carol

PS - As soon as I log out of iexplore so do the rest of the entries.

Additional info - I ran reimage repair and picked up some speed but still the multiple instances of ie. I then ran a scan (gre?) and noticed that there were lots and lots of entries of iexplore that were tagged as text files which looked wierd so I went to the file (iexplore under programs) and clicked on it at which point my cptr died again with the old slowness, hanging, and poor screen refresh. I also ran a scan from the malware section on this site (#attach) where it said I am running both iexplore 7 and 8 (wtf?) as well as DDS which showed 4 entries for iexplore. Any help would be really appreciated!!!

Welcome to BleepingComputer

Internet Explorer starts multiple instances for the main frame window and multiple tabs inside it. EVen if you have only 1 tab open, you would have at least 2 iexplore.exe running. This is normal.

If Internet Explorer makes your system slow, then possibly you have many browser add-ons (extensions) installed which load every time you load IE. Try running IE without any add-ons. Right-click on the IE icon on your desktop and choose Start without add-ons. See if this makes any difference.