IE7 won't work but can still get e-mail & updates

[Budman]

I have a problem here. A friend has a HP laptop & for some unknown reason everytime we open up IE7 we get the "IE can't display the webpage". Now she can still get her E-Mail & log onto Live messenger but no IE7. I even installed Firefox & still no internet. I googled & tried a bunch of different things like clearing the DNS cach & even reset the IP stack. I reset IE7 tried the safe mode idea but no luck. I can do the IPCONFIG & ping google & get a response back. It will even download vista updates.
She has a ton of stuff on here so don't really want to reformat. I have also tried disabeling Avast but no luck either. I scanned it & it didn't find any virus. I've uninstalled her network cards & reinstalled them. Running Vista Home Prem 32 bit.
Any body have any other suggestions that I can try?

 

[Jelly]

Download IE8 on a working computer and put it on a flash drive, install it to the non working one and see if that helps