IE8 is not the usual culprit for :hover problems. If you can't get it to work, there's always jQuery!
$("#tabb tbody tr").hover(
function() {
$("this").children("td").css( { 'background-color': '#d0e4f2', 'color': '#006' } );
},
function() {
$("this").children("td").css( { ... } );
}
);