From Leo's mailbag:
> From: A Computer User
> Sent: April 9, 2006
> To: Ask Leo!
> Subject: browsers crash on secure pages
>
> Leo,
> --------------
> Every time I attempt to visit a web page that requires a
> login, such as hotmail, yahoo or GMail, I get an "Internet
> Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close" error.
> Same with Firefox. I am a bit stumped, and have exhausted
> all resources that I know to try and fix the problem. Spybot
> locks up when I try to fix the problems it finds and Ad-aware
> doesn't find any problems. Any ideas what might be the
> problem? BTW, I have uninstalled and reinstalled both IE and Firefox.
It concerns me greatly that Spybot locks up, and makes me wonder
that there's something more insidious going on with your system.
My first course of action (after backing up, of course) would be
to grab another anti-spyware program and run it. I recommend
Microsoft Defender:
http://ask-leo.com/recommendation_microsoft_antispyware.html
If that doesn't solve anything, I would then move on to the
system file checker:
http://ask-leo.com/what_is_the_system_file_checker_and_how_do_i_run_it.html
I have a page on IE crashing that may also help:
http://ask-leo.com/iexploreexe_has_generated_an_error_now_what.html
but the fact that this is happening in both Firefox and IE makes
me wonder.
If you have desktop search tools (like Google Desktop), you might
try disabling them, as they can sometimes interfere. Ditto for any
and various toolbars.
Good luck!