Internet Explorer/Java Problems

Okay i'm not sure whether my problems are based just with those two programs or if it goes deeper but lets hope someone can help.
Well my internet explorer doesn't work whatsoever. It says it can't connect to but i am connected to the internet as my firefox works fine and when i diagnose the problem on IE it says it can't find whats wrong.
I've also had a problem with Javascript which seems to have miraculously dissappeared and when i try to install it again the online version says it can't install with the current internet connection settings or the offline version fails with error code 3 which i can't find any mention of on the internet.
The same goes for when i try to reinstall internet explorer. When try to install it says there isn't enough memory and to close other running programs. Well i tried with all programs closed and checked to see i still have over 200gb of memory left. Can anyone help me, bearing in mind i'm not AMAZING with computers so you'll have to dumb down the language a bit =]

Try by reseting the IE.

To reset Internet Explorer automatically, click the Fix this problem link. Then click Run in the File Download dialog box, and follow the steps in this wizard.

Note This wizard may be in English only; however, the automatic fix also works for other language versions of Windows.

Note If you are not on the computer that has the problem, you can save the automatic fix to a flash drive or to a CD, and then you can run it on the computer that has the problem.

I've just used the fixit and at least part of my problem still remains

A new laptop 2 days ago will not display certain web pages (or sometimes part of) though a second machine to apparently the same spec (Vista home premium with IE8 on the same connection has no problem

A particular example is the http://www.java.com/en page where the machine in question will open the Java in action and the help center pages though not the downloads page. On pressing the link the status link appears to show it loading but nothing is displayed

Is there something obvious please?

Richard