lost popup links - expert help required

For some reason I've lost the ability to view popup links i.e If I'm tryinging to view the spec of an item and hit the appropriate link all I get is a blank popup box. I've tried disabling my anti virus software and have followed the instructions of my ISP which were as follows:
Open Internet Explorer
Click on 'Tools' then 'Internet Options'
Or. Click on 'View' then 'Internet Options'

Click the 'Settings' button mid right on the first page
Click on the 'View Files' button
Click on 'Edit' at the top then 'Select All'
Click on 'File' at the top then 'Delete'
Click 'Yes' on the confirmation box
Click the 'X' in the top right corner
Click 'Ok' on the settings box

Click the 'Security' tab at the top
If the security level in bold type about half way down the page says
anything other than 'Medium' Click on the 'Default level' button at the
bottom

Click the 'Privacy' tab at the top
The slider needs moving to 'Low'

Click the 'Connections' tab at the top
Click on the 'Settings' button mid right on the page
The only tick on this page should be next to 'Automatically detect
settings' any others should be removed

Click the 'Advanced' tab at the top
Click the 'Restore Defaults' button below the large white panel
Click on 'Apply' at the bottom
Click 'Ok'

Nothing has worked. I'm running on XP Pro and had no problems untill recently. Any Ideas?????????

UPDATE 13 Jan
Thanks guys. For your info none of the suggestions worked. I uninstalled explorer, reset my settings did all the things my ISP suggested. All to no avail. Finally reinstalled windows and hey presto popups are back. I'll now go through the process of reinstalling my drivers ans see what happens.

Thanks again

First of all, call up your ISP and tell them they're a bunch of total blithering fools....

Now that we have that out of our systems..

I don't know what's wrong, and I don't use Windows very often, and I haven't used Internet Explorer in over a year, but by golly, I'll give it a shot (even if you did post in the wrong forum.. this should probably be in Beginners)!

First off, put your Privacy tab back up to whatever you want it to be at..

Next, provide a link here to a page that contains one of these popups. Also, copy and paste the text below into your address bar and press ENTER:

javascript:myWin = window.open('', 'myWindow'); myWin.document.write('You got a popup you did... no problems, go slap your ISP');

Let me know what, if anything, happens.

HA HA HA HA! It's not always like that. Believe me I have experience and it really depend on the policies and which tech you end up with.

Add/Remove Programs -> IE & Internet tools (not exactly sure) -> Repair IE -> follow the wizard and don't forget to reboot.

This wizard simply clears a lot of things, reset default values (even your homepage) but doesn't wipe out the very important such as mail and bookmarks.

riv forgot to mention: this option is only available with SP1. If you don´t have it yet, install it. Then it should already work again.