knightly

I've had AIM 5.9 for years and haven't had the problem I'm experiencing at all until just recently following the installment of Vista's Service Pack 1. At first it seemed like the incidents were limited to several days about two weeks ago, but the problem has resurfaced full force and I have no explanation for it.

AIM has taken to repeatedly freezing. That is, at seemingly random intervals it will stop letting me send/recieve messages. I get no notification that there is anything wrong with my connection nor does AIM sign me off. It just stops working and until I notice; apparently I get signed off but for some reason I get no notice of this. When I find I can't send messages I have to manually sign off and back on, and the problem eventually occurs again which repeats the cycle.

This happened for over a week, during which time I deleted every file associated with AIM, deleted the screennames as was recommended for freezing, and uninstalled/reinstalled the software. This did not change or improve anything. My firewall and antivirus software are instructed to allow AIM access to the internet so this is not the problem either.

One other thing: almost always when this problem is occurring, after I've restarted my laptop shortly after I sign onto AIM it signs me off and back on. This is the only time I get the notice that I've been kicked off of AIM. Additionally, my internet connection remains intact while AIM is repeatedly freezing like this.

Does anyone know what this is and what I can do about it? I am running on Vista Basic with Service Pack 1 recently installed (which has caused my laptop some other problems but these don't relate to AIM). My laptop is a Toshiba satellite A135-S2386.

T J Belfiore

Revo Uninstaller.

Uninstall AIM - Get an OLDER version since they're more "stable".

My personal opinion.

knightly

Thanks for the input. I've gone ahead and used the revo uninstaller, but the downloads for versions of AIM earlier than 5.9 don't install. I keep getting error messages about the files being corrupt, but hopefully with things cleaned up better the program will run more smoothly.

It surprises me that something that worked just fine for such a long time on this machine suddenly stopped working right.

T J Belfiore

I was just suggesting ideas, stick with the newest version if you want.

knightly

I think 6.9 is the newest, but it looks like the problem's recurring despite those efforts.

I'm really wondering if it's something related to installing SP1, since I've never seen this problem before that. Either that or the ISP but I'd think that'd disrupt more than AIM.

Seems like I get the weirdest problems.

T J Belfiore

LOL - You're not going to reinstall a OS because of AIM, are you?

Get Pidgin - it's WAY better than AIM's default client, and it has every other client built in plus addon support.

knightly

Oh gosh no. I've had to tinker with Vista's various fabulous issues far too much to restart for AIM's sake, no matter how useful it is to me.

I may have to try that if I can't get to the root of this problem. Hopefully it's just AIM and not any chat application I try.

T J Belfiore

Also, Trillian is good.

"AIM has taken to repeatedly freezing. That is, at seemingly random intervals it will stop letting me send/recieve messages."

So, you can actually "chat" with people?

"I get no notification that there is anything wrong with my connection nor does AIM sign me off."

It says your signed on?

knightly

Well when the program's not booting me, that's how I get to converse with friends. Live kind of far from much of anything, if that's what you meant anyhow. Sorry if I misunderstood the question.

As for being signed on, when I lose the ability to do anything on AIM basically, people apparently get mixed information. Some will see me listed as still online and others say it's signed me off - I've seen the logs of both. On my end I have no visual indication that AIM is offline or not working, until I try to send a message and it doesn't do anything.

In the past I'd get a notice that the service wasn't available or that I'd been signed out, but in the recent past it doesn't do that for some reason.

T J Belfiore

Weird. Like I said, I'd just Revo Uninstall it and get Trillian or Pidgin, it would really save you the trouble and time of getting help from TSF *or* reinstalling your OS.