Strange. I use IE9 on my cubase lappy and it gives me to problems.
Did call the faulty ram 
Very well could be IE is taking focus of the soundcard trying to play something. What if you disable it in Control Panel for anything to do with Windows? Have you checked for newer drivers?
The only reason to not have your DAW connected to the Internet (or any network for that matter) is so that you can disable services that are no longer required for network connectivity. If you’re trying to really eek out every iota of CPU performance this can allow you to push your computer harder.
But if you’re like me and don’t have 100’s of tracks in any given project, there’s no need to do this if you’re computer isn’t substandard.
However, having said that…I quit using IE at version 5. I couldn’t stand the bloat and the lag on startup and rendering in general when compared to other browsers. I use Firefox mostly and Chrome on occasion.
Yeah, I kept my DAW unconnected back when computers were slow, expensive, and my system drive was 30 gig.
Back then you couldn’t spare the resources for things like virus protection.
Now - with so much power at our fingertips - why wouldn’t I give myself easy access to software or driver updates, downloads of plugins, uploads of files for collabs, the ability to hear members music on my studio monitors, etc etc.
It’s a no brainer these days.
I have the latest drivers for my soundcard. I’ve now gone another full day with the system without a hiccup.
I just may be out of the woods. 
Let’s hope so! I’ve got my fingers crossed. 
Lenny - glad to see you’re up and running. I’ve never had my current daw online. Benefits to me are ,no need for anti virus, firewalls and such. No chance of getting a dibilitating root kit or other such virus , Down sides are, as you say, a big inconvenience for updates and software/sounds downloads. I still see it as a worthwhile tradeoff mainly because I;ve had the fake anti virus infection and wouldn’t want this on my studio pc.
I am the same way, but I do jack-in to authorize.
I should probably do this. May be time to rethink my strategy as I consider Lenny’s points. My Daw is nearing the end of its life; its a 2006 Dell Core 2 Duo and I think I ordered it without and modem or even network card. Next time around I’ll probably go for a wireless connect or at least a network card
Phew!
I was plagued with problems for quite some time. Crashes at start up were very routine. After a recent hardware upgrade my problems were solved. It seems that even though my old system had resources to spare, things seemingly become quite unstable when getting close to RAM limits which I often was on my old dual-core/4Gb setup. As for IE9 - it definitely has issues with some functions/websites and as a result I now mostly use Firefox. I’m not aware however of IE9’s shortcomings impacting on Cubase in any direct way, though I guess its a possibility.
Because we’re not paranoid luddites?