[macnext1]

Yesterday two things occurred, I did an AdAware scan and deleted over 100 cookies (I do this every week) and MicroSoft did an update. Following the update I was required to do a reboot - which I did. Following that I could no longer get to AOL, at the time I thought perhaps they were having problems since I could not get to Centurytel either. However as the morning wore on I discovered that the Centurytel problem was due to them doing an update and so it cleared up. Still could not get to AOL -- and still can't this morning.

Symptom - It goes to AOL and then goes to Screen Name Service but the Screen Name Service page never comes up (just sits there with the little ball spinning - never brings up the page).

I can't believe that the deletion of cookies caused this since I do it every week. Seems like it has to have been caused by the MS update. I have a restore point that was created yesterday by "Software Distribution" so my questions are:

1: Was the restore pointed created before or after the update?
2: If it was before and I restore to that point will it back off the changes that were made (I assume they were important)?
3: What is the right way to fix this?

Help!!! -- I use AOL everyday (I go there several times a day).

Once again, thanks in advance for any help. I'll bet yawl are getting tired of hearing from me I seem to be constantly having problems - sorry.

[Howard]

Doing a system restore may well fix the problem and yes, the restore point should have been made before the update was installed.

I also suggest you contact AOL and see if they know about the issue. They may even have a fix.

Regards Howard

[macnext1]

Howard will the restore back off the patches that were installed? I read something that said this was an important update (fixed like 26 security holes).

[Blackmirror]

Try it Mac
Do the system restore and then go to windows updates and see if you need to redownload

[Gunner]

mac, you probably didn't do it right.
Every time I do M$ updates I hold my breath and cross my fingers during the
reboot hoping that everything still works.
Murphy's Law usually takes hold. I have restored and did the updates one by
one to find the culprit. And sometimes I just wait a few days before updating the
new ones. But that's me.
Good luck.

[macnext1]

Well consensus of opinion seems to be to do the restore so I reckon I'll give it a whirl. Thanks folks, I'll let you know (hopefully with a smiley face).

[Blackmirror]

FIngers crossed Mac

[macnext1]

Well folks - kinda mixed reviews. I think it actually worked but at first it looked like it wasn't fixed - just hanging there forever. So I went a different way - went to help.aol.com (got it from google) since I was gonna send them an E-Mail and didn't know exactly where to send it. Anyhow on their help page they had a login place so I logged in and looked at my account - looked fine. About that time I noticed that the other tab had quit spinning so I clicked back over to that tab and lo and behold my regular screen was ther. So evidently it is healed.

So all I need to know now is how do I figure out if the patches are there and if not how do I get them back?

[Blackmirror]

Try this scan Mac
Software Inspector - Secunia

It should tell you if you are missing any updates

[macnext1]

Been watching that AOL "Screen Name Service" spinning ball for about an hour now - don't think it's gonna go away. MS update says I need to install SP3 and then check back for any further updates (Secunia pointed out several). So I reckon I'll go ahead and do the SP3 update - been putting it off but I don't guess I'm gonna get much worse off. Who knows perhaps it will resolve this problem (doubtful). Well anyway wish me luck - if you don't hear from me for a while you'll know that it in fact made things a LOT worse.

You can always identify a 2 finger typist by the number of words that have 2 letters reversed or the number of single letter corrections needed. Think I had about 6 of each in this little message.

See ya.

[macnext1]

Well the MS update failed (multiple times) -- perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I did the system restore which (I guess) backed off the previously installed updates. I get a failure on 3 updates from Friday (these would be the ones I backed off although as far as I know they actually worked on Friday) and 1 failure from today. I tried doing them again - it says they are downloaded but then when it tries the install they fail. I filed a problem report with MS, they will respond within 24 hours - so it's wait and see time.

Meanwhile back at the ranch Little Susie AOL is being accosted by the spinning ball. Watched that litle spinning ball for over an hour. Sooo, if I open another browser page and go to help.aol.com I can log in with my id and password plus answer my security question - then look at "my account" and the little spinning ball stops and I can go back to that browser page and look at my mail. I thought that that was such an interesting phenomenon that I would request their help. Weeelll guess what - since I am no longer a paying customer they have no assistance available to dead beats. So unless someone here has some ideas I reckon my path into AOL has just become very cumbersome but workable.

One thing I noticed is that the https for the spinning ball page changes to something else once I have signed in through help. Don't know if that helps anyone. Question - why would deleting cookies (which I have done many many times before have caused this?

[Albert Lionheart]

I have come across this before and fixed it with a reinstall of the AOL package.
Also you can set up most routers to sign on to your AOL account for you which means you don't need to use the AOL Login page and are free to use IE, Firefox or Opera (orwhatever)

[macnext1]

I don't have a router - just a modem. I'll try the download.

[Gunner]

Deleting cookies or history will not cause this problem.
Installing Sp3 before you get these probs ironed out will complicate things.
If your system restore helped but not enough, try a restore of an earlier date.
Get your system stable first and then go back to M$ for the updates.
Sp3 for XP is like Sp1 for Vista and has all the cumulative updates to date.
Took me 4 hours yesterday to do an Sp1 update on a Vista machine. Had to
reinstall many things that got hosed. Fun, fun, fun.
I wouldn't think of putting Sp3 on my fine running system at this time. But that's me.
Good luck.

[macnext1]

Tried a restore to 8/12 - everything but AOL looks fine. I reckon I'll try to reinstall AOL. If that fixes AOL then I'll try for the updates (maybe).

Does anyone else have a comment about installing SP3? I'd kind of like to see several comments and gather a consensus of opinion before I do or don't go to SP3.

[Albert Lionheart]

SPIII - you could read my comments on this on the thread "Update on installing XP SPIII - odd results!" - not guaranteed to be helpful in this case though!

[macnext1]

Well MS came through in the end. I now have SP3 and a whole batch of security updates. AOL of course still has the same problem but I'll probably wait til tomorrow to uninstall/reinstall.

[Blackmirror]

Mac I'm not familiar with AOL
DO you access it through a web browser ?? like internet explorer
Or is it a separate one

[macnext1]

It goes through the IE7 browser.

[Blackmirror]

Does it work with Firefox>
If it does its a IE problem not AOL


http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/