dredded AOL

**chaosrn** · 25th December 2006

i have AOL 9.x SE on my system, (wife uses it for her kids & parents of her 5th grade class...she is also NOT tech-wise beyond "this doesn't work.... fix it" skills), i recently tried to up-date IE and had multiple issues, got rid of those, then AOL got wierd(er). now i have to release the IP address each time i open it to log on.
XP home (SP2)
AOL 9.x SE
AVG free
Trendmicro- pc-illin
EZ armor

none of these caused conflict before the attempted upgrade of IE to 7,
AND XP would not let me un-install the new IE and replace it with an earlier version... kept telling me there is a new version already installed install process closed.

**charlesvar** · 26th December 2006

Hello chaosrn,

Is there an Add/Remove entry for IE7? Is that what doesn't work? Removing IE7 reverts back to IE6 - still there.

If that doesn't work, and If you have System Restore enabled, restore back to just prior to the IE7 install.

Regards - Charles

ephemarial · 26th December 2006

Hi Chaosrn.

As a long time 8 years or so, now ex-AOL customer have gone thru numerous AOL/Windows upgrades with associated problems. I discovered 2 things.

1> Either a windows or AOL upgrade can blow functionality.

2> AOL like Norton is an octopus insisting on changing and integrating itself throughout your computer.

Best solution that always worked for me. Totally remove AOL and any reference to it then re-install it.

That’s also the solution before installing any new Norton program.

**chaosrn** · 27th December 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlesvar

Is there an Add/Remove entry for IE7? Is that what doesn't work? Removing IE7 reverts back to IE6 - still there.

Regards - Charles

actually i tried to remove IE7 from the control panel, but xp said i still had a newer version of IE, but for some after doing that IE appears to be working fine, just no shortcut on desktop, (i can live with that though.) i am just wondering if this is also part of my problem with AOL, (see thread "Dredded AOL" in this forum)

**TonyT** · 27th December 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by chaosrn

actually i tried to remove IE7 from the control panel, but xp said i still had a newer version of IE, but for some after doing that IE appears to be working fine, just no shortcut on desktop, (i can live with that though.) i am just wondering if this is also part of my problem with AOL, (see thread "Dredded AOL" in this forum)

re IE on desktop:
rt click desktop
click Properties
click Desktop tab
click Customize button
put a check next to IE to show on desktop.

**chaosrn** · 10th February 2007

i have reloaded AOL, i have adjusted my firewall, i have quick-fixed AOL, i even tried Open Ride....
i have a headache, i have rebooted more times than a calvary officer

i have tried SE, optimized, & VR.....
i have uninstalled, re-installed...
can one prevent AOL from updating itself, because that is where my troubles begin

**charlesvar** · 10th February 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by chaosrn

can one prevent AOL from updating itself, because that is where my troubles begin

Hello chaosm,

Try asking at the aol message boards http://messageboards.aol.co.uk/aol/e...unity&is_mod=1

You can also start an on-line chat session with aol help or call.

Regards - Charles

pishbloom2 · 11th February 2007

one other thing you might try is go to your add/remove programs look for either america on line size etc or aol uninstaller check which version to remove. you say you have had all of the aol 9.0 versions? i tried all of the 9.0 also and they were horrid. uninstall all of the 9.0 from your computer completely. if you still want to have aol which ive had since 99 and not had a problem is go to cnet.com and at the top to look for something to download type in america on line 8.0 on the line it will say all cnet and then it says go. hit go and at the very bottom of the page that comes up you will see america on line 8.0 download now. hit that and click save to your c disk (thats how i do it) the file name is aolsetup8.0. it will ask you if you want to run or not. hit run and it will install it. what you will be getting is aol 8.0 plus for broadband. now if you have dialup you can still use it. or if you just want regular aol 8.0 go to aol keyword and type in america on line 8.0 or aol 8.0 and youll get a page where you can download that version if you wish. it will prompt you through the installation. its very easy as i was constantly reinstalling it on my old computer every time i had to restore it but not because of aol problems. let us know what happens.

pishbloom2 · 11th February 2007

big correction. please disregard the info about going to cnet to get aol 8.0. i checked last night and you cant get it anymore from them. theres only a new version called aol 9.0 vr (which stands for vista ready) i downloaded it and installed it and hated it. i stupidly removed my aol 8.0 thinking that the new version would be better and its not. i thought great what did i do i have no aol. so i stumbled upon a site called oldversion.com and low and behold they have every old version of aol from 4.0 to 8.0. so i downloaded and installed the 8.0 version and now i have my 8.0 plus back. so if anyone wants an older version of aol because they hate every version of 9.0 thats where you can go to get it now. the file comes in a zip file so of course you will have to extract it. i absolutely detest zip files but i must of extracted it ok because then it started installing it with no problems. hope this helps someone.

**chaosrn** · 21st February 2007

thanks, i found 8.0 at that site, i am back on aol, (for my mail, but i can't use the latest features (natch) such as the video links, and i just find it a major pain that i can get an initial version up and running, but it updates it self out of functionality, as for open ride..... well, lets just quote the closing line from buckaroo banzai: "so what, big deal...." (fade out image, fade in music)

pishbloom2 · 21st February 2007

you are very welcome. im glad you were able to get a version of aol that you like. another way to get aol without downloading and installing it is go through internet explorer and just type www.aol.com and if you have aol you can check your mail etc and see whats going on if you dont want to have all that stuff in your computer. i think you can do it that way with other browsers like firefox, etc. also what i did was take the whole unzipped file and put it on a cd so i never have to download another copy again in case that site decides to not offer it anymore. just another suggestion to help out.

**chaosrn** · 22nd February 2007

the issue with that is, once installed, a CD version of AOL 9.x, will load, install, and run. But when i sign off and close it, a little box pops up and "updates" the existing version of 9.x, and takes away the functionality of the version i just used, for a "more current version".... i would like to keep the version i just installed from the CD. and as i said, Open Ride has a bug that windows XP tries to debug and prevents it from running.