Yep, ive now installed IE8, no change. Clearly I've messed something up, but it has to be around whatever lets IE or FF start up and connect. I've pinged yahoo.com with no issues and no packet loss. I'm now trying to reinstale the device drivers etc for anything around networking.
All other software appears to be stable, i did have an error code 31 on the ASATAP network adatper, but I disable and enabled it and that went away (I still have an error code 10, but apparently that is 'normal'!).
I have noticed that when I do a hardware test i get a failure as follows:
LAN test did not run
No network adapter or invalid device (E-LAN-002)
Errors were detected (E-LAN-004)
Don't see how there can be no network adapter though as in the device manager there is clearly on there! so don't know if this helps or not!
Anyway, nothing I have tried so far has worked.
I was resigned to reistaling VISTA, but i did not make any back discs when I got the PC and have no idea if this is possible without them, it looks like it is not.!
ARGGGG!