Computer Tips & Tricks

I sure am good at using that confused icon, ha.  For just a short time I'm noticing I will be on a web page, lately I'm searching for Christmas gifts.  I'll type in the kind of item I'm looking for and hit enter, be facing a list of web sites to try, open one, and then when I try to back up and return to the list of web sites I'm not returned there - instead I reach a blank page and it will say "done" in the system tray along the bottom.  To return to the "list", I have to click on the X at the upper right, then am seeing a small box saying "close" after that, and the only thing I can do is click on that, which then returns me to my desktop.  And I have to start my search all over again from scratch.  I have no idea what's suddenly causing this.

Then today I was trying to place an order on Amazon, which DH and I do all the time.  Twice now recently it's not always possible to put items into their shopping cart.  Usually at the right there is a highlighted box you click on to do that, but for the second time now today that box wasn't even there.  I finally e-mailed with a request they call, the phone rang almost instantly, I about jumped, lol.  The nice guy on the other end was puzzled, he'd never seen this before, but eventually he placed those items in my cart FOR me and all was well. 

Somehow this is sounding like a glitch with IE or something, could these two little issues be related?  The guy on the phone got my permission to open my Amazon account, and he could see the shopping cart box that was not visible on this end.  Puzzling little stuff.  Anyone have any ideas?  He suggested I clear my history/cache, and I told him I do that several times a day, so I don't think that's it.  I do have some maintenance scheduled at set times on a regular basis, so I try my best to keep it all in order. 

don't know if I have an answer or not : Did you update your IE to IE8? I know that before I did - DH and I would have little glitches on some sites too- and it turned out that the sites were geared for IE8 and we had IE7 - once I did the update- the glitches stopped.

I would also run your virus scan just to be sure. Also I wouldn't clear the cache "several times a day" most all sites you visit need the "cookies" that collect on your computer in order for you to visit the site again - by constantly clearing your cache you are wiping out the needed "cookies" for the site that could be part of the problem. At home I do ours maybe 1x per month.

If you are using IE8, you could try using the compatibility view settings, adding the sites you want to the list and see if that clears it up. Otherwise try other browsers:
Firefox
Opera
Safari

they are all free.