Internet Explorer: Can't enter text in forms

[erulia]

I have IE 5 (I know, it's an old version) and I recently started having this bizarre problem. I can't enter text into on-line forms. This seems only to effect text boxes; the address bar, drop boxes and checkboxes all work fine.

A few weeks back, I installed the Google toolbar, but that is the only change recently and the browser worked without problems for a while after installing the toolbar (like, through several reboots).

Does anyone have any idea what might cause this or how to trouble-shoot it? I'm a Unix person, so I'm not real up-to-date on microsoft trouble-shooting.

Thanks! Unix Sys Admin

 

[PAndersen]

Maybe IE repair or Autocomplete > Clear Forms will help (?)

 

[sm43]

Hi,
I've been having the same exact problem for the past 3-4 days. I ran mcrepair, windows repair on ie... ran ad-aware & spybot & removed all spyware etc... it didn't make a difference to this problem though.. i've tried this w/ ie 5.5 & ie 6 sp1. uninstalling/reinstalling doesn't help either. PAnderson, what do you mean when u say Autocomplete-> Clear Forms.. How do we do that? just to let u know, I've had the 'use Inline AutoComplete' option under Tools-Internet Options ->Advanced->Browsing turned off all this time. but it seems like it may have something to do with autocomplete.. i just get the feeling

Saad

 

[carrr]

The Google toolbar has been known to really booger up operations. You should uninstall it and seeing how this effects your situation.

 

[erulia]

Thanks for the tips -- I'll give them a try. I should also note, however, that "Tools"->"Internet Options" wasn't working, either. This may have been a temporary problem -- I'll try it again when I get home. Anyway, the problem was that I would click on "Internet Options", the screen would flicker, and nothing else would happen -- the Options window wouldn't show up or anything.

Anyhow, I will try uninstalling the Google bar, also, and see if that works. Thanks again! I'll keep you posted (if I can...). Unix Sys Admin

 

[sm43]

Turning off the Internet Options->Content->AutoComplete->Forms option fixed the form-text-entry freeze problem for me. However, internet explorer still doesn't appear to be functioning quite problem-free.. when i go to a site that requires a login and set it to sign me in automatically (like hotmail or some other email site) .. the browser really gets stuck from page-to-page.. it sometimes freezes the the entire desktop for a few secs & u can't do anything, until it finally lets you go.. sometimes, the rest-of-the-system is free but if u minimize that browser-window, it becomes inaccessible for a while & all u hear is the windows ping sound when u click on it...

I don't know AutoComplete seems to me to be causing trickiness. I turned all of the Autocomplete options just to see if it would fix the second (window-freeze) problem, but it didn't.

I happened to find some articles while browsing around that may not be entirely relevant to the problems erulia and I have been having, but are noteworthy nevertheless.. The articles were written a while ago..I think the problems they mention may have been fixed in later IE service packs, but I'm not sure.. Does anyone know if these problems are still a threat if you have ie 5.5 w/ sp2 & the cumulative security pack..

http://security.greymagic.com/adv/gm001-ie/

http://www.freelists.org/archives/sql-ledger-users/03-2002/fullthread22.html

So, how come AutoComplete-Forms caused this freeze problem? I always used it but never had this problem until now. It's a pretty handy feature, and I would like to use it if I could...


Saad

 

[InnoTech]

sounds sounds to be more than autocomplete cuasing the problem. go ahead and use the IE repair tool to see if it helps (like PAnderson suggested). however, i really can't remember if IE 5.0 gives you this option. either way if you install 5.5 or even better 6.0 it should help.

anyway.......control panel> add/remove progs.> click microsoft internet explorer and then add/remove button. this will then give you the repair option. good luck! "Jack of all trades. Master of none."

 

[erulia]

Thanks for all the tips! I still can't get "Internet Options" to pop up, so I'll try that repair tool.

BTW, I removed the Google bar, and it didn't help. I'll try the repair and the upgrade next. Unix Sys Admin

 

[erulia]

Yee-ha! I'm FINALLY entering this text from Internet Explorer! I had to upgrade to 6 (sp1) in the end: IE didn't show up in the "Add/Remove Software" program. *sigh* But it finally works. Thanks, everyone, for the advice! Unix Sys Admin