Netscape 7.2 won't start

I'm hoping that someone might be able to give me a little guidance. Here's what's been going on:

I am running a Dell Dimension (forgot the model #; I'm not on that computer right now) that is 5 yrs old with Win98. I have been sucessfully using IE since I got this computer. After moving recently, it stayed in the box until a few months ago. After unpacking it, I found that IE didn't work. I tried opening it through the desktop shortcut, the start menu, run command... and still nothing would happen. The hour-glass would appear for a few seconds, and that was it.

My question isn't about IE, so I'm going to skip over what I tried to do about that (though if you feel it's relevant when trying to answer my questions, please ask). I gave up on IE and decided to install Netscape. A few days ago I installed Netscape 7.2, only to discover that I still had the same problem: Netscape will not open either. The hour-glass comes up for ~7 sec, then disappears. I get no error messages. I do find Netscape in the task manager.

I have no problem accessing AIM or email clients.

Other posts about this problem seem to be coming from people who have been using Netscape for a while, whereas mine is newly installed and never used.

Finally, my questions: Should I follow the same steps that I have found in posts on this site that were recommended to these other users, or is my situation different? Since this has been a problem with two web browsers, does it suggest that the problem might not have to do with the software?

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can lend.

 

I am killing time, because I don't know how you can't connect to the Navigator nor IE, but you can get mail or AIM. What mail client(s)?

 

Mail clients

I have been using First Class (for my work email). I haven't tried Outlook in a while, so I can't really vouch for that.