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re: MSN Messenger won't start Sunday, June 9, 2002 at 3:56 pm Posted by rundll (330 messages posted) a couple of things to try...if you haven't already... download the entire installable executable from http://messenger.msn.com instead of trying to install from windows update then... 1) turn off all antivirus before continuing troubleshooting. (be sure to turn it back on when you are done.) 2) uninstall your current version of msn messenger. reboot. 3) go to control panel > add/remove programs > double-click on internet explorer X.s and Internet tools and choose the repair option. (note: IE won't be listed in add/remove programs if you have never updated it.) follow the instructions. if it fails, click details, and post back. it looks as though msn messenger uses many of IEs components so if they aren't tiptop, msn messenger may not work properly. 4) after the machine has finished with the IE repair tool and rebooted, boot the machine to safe mode. 5) from safe mode, execute the msn messenger installation program. safe mode is an excellent environment to install troublesome programs as (in general) nothing is running in the background to interfere with things. if the installation program balks because it doesn't have the color depth or something, it may have to be run in normal mode. in this case you should clean boot the machine before installing. post back for help if you don't know how. 6) when done, make sure to reenable your antivirus. 7) post back on success or failure. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: MSN Messenger won't start Sunday, June 9, 2002 at 5:25 pm Posted by Deke (366 messages posted) Go to this link and click "download", if it detects it on you system it will open a second window that will ask you to "Start it from here". Hope this helps; MSN Messenger On Sunday, June 9, 2002 at 2:42 pm, Jason Hollett wrote: >Hi. I downloaded the latest version of MSN Messenger, and after I install it, it >won't load. The installation runs fine without errors, but when I click the icon >from the start menu it just doesn't do anything. I have tried older version including >3.6 and 3.0 also and they all just simply won't start up. Any help someone could >give me with this would be great. Thanks. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: MSN Messenger won't start Sunday, June 9, 2002 at 8:44 pm Posted by Jason Hollett (3 messages posted) I followed your steps exactly, and had no troubles along the way. Same outcome unfortunately resulted. You start messanger, little hour comes up for a brief second, and then that's it...it just won't start. Thank you very much for you help though. If you have any other suggestions they would be appreciated. On Sunday, June 9, 2002 at 3:56 pm, rundll wrote: >a couple of things to try...if you haven't already... > >download the entire installable executable from http://messenger.msn.com >instead of trying to install from windows update then... > >1) turn off all antivirus before continuing troubleshooting. (be sure to turn it >back on when you are done.) > >2) uninstall your current version of msn messenger. reboot. > >3) go to control panel > add/remove programs > double-click on internet explorer >X.s and Internet tools and choose the repair option. (note: IE won't be listed >in add/remove programs if you have never updated it.) follow the instructions. >if it fails, click details, and post back. it looks as though msn messenger uses >many of IEs components so if they aren't tiptop, msn messenger may not work properly. > > >4) after the machine has finished with the IE repair tool and rebooted, boot the >machine to safe mode. > >5) from safe mode, execute the msn messenger installation program. safe mode is >an excellent environment to install troublesome programs as (in general) nothing >is running in the background to interfere with things. if the installation program >balks because it doesn't have the color depth or something, it may have to be run >in normal mode. in this case you should clean boot the machine before installing. > post back for help if you don't know how. > >6) when done, make sure to reenable your antivirus. > >7) post back on success or failure. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: MSN Messenger won't start Sunday, June 9, 2002 at 11:24 pm Posted by rundll (330 messages posted) *reminder* for all troubleshooting make sure your antivirus is disabled. there are a few things to try... uninstall msn messenger, reboot and reinstall it again...i know what you are thinking...we are gonna do something different though... windows has a bad/good feature of maintaining references from a previous installation of software when you update it. if references are garbage, they may not be fixed. this helps preserve personalized settings which makes people happy because they don't have to reconfigure everything but can make troubleshooting a real PAIN. after you uninstall msn messenger and reboot, browse to your 'program files' folder, right-click on the messenger folder and choose rename. rename it to messenger.old or something. this is in case the install routine trys to pull information from the messenger folder by default. now reinstall msn messenger *antivirus is disabled right?* but when it asks you where, instead of \program files\messenger, put it in \program files\msn_messenger. this will cause some registry entries to be rewritten and might fix the problem. after installation is complete, reboot and test. if this didn't help and you are familiar with backing up and browsing the registry, try this: open the registry editor (click Start, then click Run, enter "regedit.exe" and click OK), look for the following key (they look like folders): My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Messenger\Client If you can find it, click on it, and then look on the right side of the registry editor. If you see something called 'PreventRun', click on it, then click the Edit menu, and then select Delete. Confirm the operation and then exit the registry editor. You may need to reboot. the above information was culled from a post to a microsoft news group by www.jonathankay.com. he also has an msn messenger troubleshooting site though i didn't see a reference to your problem. if this does not help, there is an msn fix provided by charter communications. non microsoft fixes always make me nervous but it would seem on the up-and-up as charter is a major company...ie, the fix is probably not hackerware but i would save this for the last troubleshooting step to try as they do not say anywhere what it does or what it changes...except for one thing...it wants to overwrite stdole32.tlb. this points in a new direction. stdole32.tlb can be updated with microsoft components through the DCOM98 for Windows 98, version 1.3 update. download this file, reboot your machine so you are starting form a clean slate, make sure your antivirus is disabled and no other programs are running and install the update. reboot and test. post back. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: MSN Messenger won't start Monday, June 10, 2002 at 7:28 pm Posted by Jason Hollett (3 messages posted) Alright, first off I would like to report that MSN Messanger is now working just fine. I tried your first suggestion but that wouldn't work for two reasons. One, after you uninstall Messenger there is no Messanger folder to rename in the Program Files folder, and Two, the installation program does not ask for a destination folder. It just asks if you agree with the licence and then it installs on its own. So then I re-installed and ran regedit, I could not find the entry listed at the location you said. So I did a search and found an entry called MessangerService a few levels under HKEY_CURRENT_USER. But there was nothing called 'PreventRun'. Anyway as a last ditch effort I downloaded that fix called MSNMessangerLaunchFixer from Charter Communications. I first went to back-up the stdole32.tlb file, but I couldn't find it on my machine. So after I ran the fix and that file was installed, messanger instantly poped up on my system tray and it worked perfect. Anyway thank you very much for telling me about that fix. I would never have found that on my own without a lot of luck. Cheers... On Sunday, June 9, 2002 at 11:24 pm, rundll wrote: >*reminder* for all troubleshooting make sure your antivirus is disabled. > >there are a few things to try... > >uninstall msn messenger, reboot and reinstall it again...i know what you are thinking...we >are gonna do something different though... > >windows has a bad/good feature of maintaining references from a previous installation >of software when you update it. if references are garbage, they may not be fixed. > this helps preserve personalized settings which makes people happy because they >don't have to reconfigure everything but can make troubleshooting a real PAIN. > >after you uninstall msn messenger and reboot, browse to your 'program files' folder, >right-click on the messenger folder and choose rename. rename it to messenger.old >or something. this is in case the install routine trys to pull information from >the messenger folder by default. now reinstall msn messenger *antivirus is disabled >right?* but when it asks you where, instead of \program files\messenger, put it in >\program files\msn_messenger. this will cause some registry entries to be rewritten >and might fix the problem. after installation is complete, reboot and test. > >if this didn't help and you are familiar with backing up and browsing the registry, >try this: > >open the registry editor (click Start, then click Run, enter "regedit.exe" and click >OK), look for the following key (they look like folders): My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Messenger\Client >If you can find it, click on it, and then look on the right side of the registry >editor. If you see something called 'PreventRun', click on it, then click the Edit >menu, and then select Delete. Confirm the operation and then exit the registry editor. > You may need to reboot. > > >the above information was culled from a post to a microsoft news group by www.jonathankay.com. > he also has an msn messenger troubleshooting >site though i didn't see a reference to your problem. > >if this does not help, there is an msn >fix provided by charter communications. >non microsoft fixes always make me nervous but it would seem on the up-and-up as >charter is a major company...ie, the fix is probably not hackerware but i would save >this for the last troubleshooting step to try as they do not say anywhere what it >does or what it changes...except for one thing...it wants to overwrite stdole32.tlb. > this points in a new direction. stdole32.tlb can be updated with microsoft components >through the DCOM98 for >Windows 98, version 1.3 update. download this file, reboot your machine so you >are starting form a clean slate, make sure your antivirus is disabled and no other >programs are running and install the update. reboot and test. > >post back. [Reply or follow-up to this message] rock on. thx for posting back. Monday, June 10, 2002 at 9:10 pm Posted by rundll (330 messages posted) rock on. thx for posting back. [Reply or follow-up to this message] Messenger STILL won't run Saturday, June 15, 2002 at 4:28 pm Posted by martin murray (4 messages posted) Sorry to put a damper on your joy, but my case didn't yield to the solutions suggested. I tried the Charter fix, but got errors labelled Autolt error, with double backslashes in path names, i.e \\Program Files\\messold\\messenger.exe. Whatever I do I get errors with RTCRTP.dll I've deleted it several times, but every time I download messenger again I get the same error. This all happened after a "critical update" from Microsoft which my wife did, now our marriage is almost breaking up and my daughter (who wants to use Messenger) is hardly speaking to me. If it ain't broke, which it wasn't, don't try and fix it. On Monday, June 10, 2002 at 9:10 pm, rundll wrote: >rock on. thx for posting back. [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows 98 Discussion Forum