Netscape 8.0.3.3 Search function not working

Need help figuring this one out. My son's computer has the Netscape 8 browser installed the newest version running on Windows XP. Prior to last evening he could click on the search button in the navigation tool bar and it would bring up the Google search engine. Now when he clicks on it it does nothing. As with most kids he assures me he didn't change anything. I am not familiar enough yet with the new browser to know if this is an issue with a setting or a problem with the software. I tried re-installing without uninstalling the current program. It installed fine, but made no difference in allowing the search button to work. Any and all ideas welcomed. My thanks in advance for any help that anyone can provide.

Thanks

 

The search area at the upper right should have a letter or a symbol, and, at the base of the letter a down arrow, which when clicked will offer a few search engine. I have a bluish G, which stands for Google, and, when I type in the small area will bring up the Google results. On the right side side there is a darker colored down arrow, which will allow you for work with the results.
I , most likely, have a different theme from yours, and I see an arrow to the right, and if I click on it, without typing anything, I get the Google page.
If you don't have the letter G, do you see anything? I have a choice of an additional four search engines, which I usually ignore, AOL, Ask Jives, Netscape and Yahoo.
Do you see anything like that? Try to type a search on the small are provided, and then enter.

 

search bar

Westside I use the modern modoki theme which looks just like you are describing. He is using a different theme, but for some reason the other search engines do not show up and when you click on the button that is there instead of the arrow it no longer brings up the Google page like it did before.
Any ideas you might have are greatly appreciated. I am hoping that I don't have to uninstall and reinstall to fix this, but it may come to that.

skeeter

 

Skeeter,
any of the four Themes I have exhibit the same properties. However, in Firefox, when I added a whole bunch of Search engines by means of the Mycroft extention, I lost some of the benefits which I had before, ( or may be they were never there, though gaining over 20 extra search engines. But everything works like a charm in NS8.
Check what is in the Program Files|Netscape|Netscape Browsers| searchplugins folder. What is there should also be in the dropdown.

 

That was it.

Apparently my son downloaded the Mycroft search engines, but did not pick one before trying to search. I didn't even think about that as he told me he hadn't made any changes to his computer. Thanks for your help. I can now turn him loose again to see what kind of havoc he can create. Hopefully nothing that I can't figure out or someone here will be able to help with.

Thanks Again

Skeeter