IE 7 not responding

I have not been here for awhile, which indicates my notebook has been healthy until now. Xpsp3,and preferred user of IE7 with 2 gigs of RAM. Just yesterday my IE 7 started to hang after browsing awhile and I would have to try to close it with Task Manager and even that would not work all of the time and so I would be forced to Power Off. I have checked for bugs etc. and have not added any new programs. I also have an issue now with the notebook not wanting to shut down. It reboots itself after 'logoff'? I have been googling all morning and trying to figure out what to do and have tried some suggestions and have found no solution yet. I don't know if this is coincidental that I can no longer turn off my computer normally but actually have to use the power off button which I don't like to do. I look forward to experienced comments, thank you. BTW, I am not with great tech expertise. Thank you

Hey Tucker,

Might be an idea to head over to the Malware forum to see if you're infected :

http://forums.whatthetech.com/index.php?showforum=27

If you get the all clear, post back and we'll see whether we can help.

Cheers,
Nahumi

Thx for the reply. Just got back to using the notebook…Acer TravelMate 2480 - 2153 and found that simply gently pulling the lid to close the notebook after the logoff when the black screen appears causes the notebook to reboot?
I forgot to mention that the notebook has been checked out for malware etc. XPsp3,2gigs.
Any comments?
Thankyou.

Edit: Deleted triplicate posts.

Loose cable between the display and the laptop body or some other loose component? Can't think of anything else it could be.