Internet Explorer 7 Problems

Symptoms: Periodically, when I open a new tab and go to the tab, my menu bar disappears. But when I switch back to my previous tab, the menu bar reappars. Also, the new tab often does not load. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling IE7--doesn't solve the problem.

I don't understand what the problem is because this is on a new computer, and I have the same programs I had on my previous computer and IE7 worked perfectly fine. I've done the virus and spyware checks. I've been checking the microsoft update site for updates to solve this problem.

Also, my computer recently froze for a moment then restarted all on it's own. And the second time it did this, I got the 'blue screen of death' : blue screen with something about a physical memory dump. (I think this might be due to the new program I installed for 'Second Life' which I have since uninstalled but there hasn't been enough time to see if that was the problem.)

Any ideas on what's wrong and how to fix this?

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Inspiron 530

Windows XP