IE Won't Close and won't play Videos

I have a dell 1545 laptop running IE 8 under Windows 7, and I have a problem that is absolutely baffling.

• Most everytime I shut down iexplorer.exe is still running and I have to shut it down
• I cannot view a video on IE or for that matter Firefox without it locking up the browser forcing me to manually shut it down.

Here's what I've done so far:

• Run full McAfee virus scan -- nothing
• Run Malware program -- nothing
• Run Symantec online virus scan -- nothing
• run chkdsk -- no impact
• Removed add-ons -- no impact
• Went back to previous restore points -- no impact
• Make sure all Microsoft updates were up to date

In additon, I don't know if this is related or not but I suspect it is, my Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) software no longer connects from the laptop and I can't hear iTunes on the laptop.  I am just baffled.  Any advice or next steps will be most appreciated.