[najida]

Guys, you're brilliant, and I'm losing my mind. Thanks in advance for your help.

[najida]

Good lord in heaven,
I didn't even tell you guys what's the problem!

I can't log on to any secure sites. Ebay, my bank, Yahoo, payment sites, etc.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Unfortunately, moral support only here.

[Publius6961]

Figure out if you've got Zone Alarm installed and uninstall it and throw it over your left shoulder...
I made the mistake of installing it a couple of years ago and it locked me out of my favorites sites!
I could still access all the trash sites...

If it takes a dozen rocket scientists to configure it ain't worth having.

[doodad]

What happens when you try to connect to a secure site? Sounds like you need to download a new version of SSL that it got corrupted somehow(?)

[Millee]

Morning najida! My expertise involves shutting everything down, saying a little prayer and re-booting. But, count me in the "here for moral support camp." ;o)

[dfwddr]

Go download Firefox and try to access the secure sites from Firefox.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[JoJo Gunn]

I don't run XP so can't help you. I can tell you that HP never shipped recovery discs for XP, but you can order them. A couple of years ago they were 25 bucks.

[carlr]

I think you said on another thread you were using Firefox.

Try to download Opera and see what happens.

http://www.opera.com/download/

[ThePythonicCow]

Some thoughts as I read quickly over the many replies ...

• I doubt it's the cookies causing secure sites to fail.
• But cookies for moral support sound good.
• As some else suggested, quit madly editing in regedit. It reminds me of a neighbor I had once who shot himself in the foot, trying to shoot flies with his hunting rifle.
• I second the motion to try Firefox. Go to the website Firefox 1.5, and click on the first Download link, for "Windows (5.0MB)"
• As someone else suggested, get a restore disk from HP. Or, if you have more money than patience, buy one. You can get a current Windows XP (with Service Pack 2) installation disk from newegg.com for under $100. See for example Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2 - OEM.
• Check out my list of recommended links, at ThePythonicCow's Best Sites for Computers, Networking, and HTML
• In particular, from my list of links, register at Geeks to Go, and try out these two procedures:
  1. Steps to clean up a system
  2. Steps to keep your system healthy

[Uri’el-2012]

Internet Explorer and National Security

[ErnBatavia]

I can't find my windows disk, and to think of it, I don't know if I ever had one :(

You probably never had one; I didn't get one with my HP Pavilion...it was touted as "plug and run"; I obtained it a couple of years later after a mysterious blackout.

As to your problem, I'm the furthest thing from a computer expert, but could you r your "Security Settings" gotten changed to too high? Your problem sounds suspiciously along that line.