Thanks, Dadwen, Back at the library...

Yeah, I tried that last night. And I get the same IE error message. Netscape 4.7 will run on the machine but it won't do Bonneville Club!

IE 6 setup file

Even though I uninstalled the current IE, and re-installed the newly downloaded version e-mailed to me by my son and downloaded using netscape, I noticed my bookmarks were still there. Man, Microsoft just doesn't want to go away once it is locked into the registry. I wish I knew more about how to fix it. I'm beginning to think it is an OS issue, and I cannot find the restore disc that came with the machine 7 yrs ago.

Tonight I am gonna back up all my files and programs and try to find some Windows 98 discs to reload the OS.

I may be kinda scarce around BC for a while.

Success! (I hope.) My son gave me a disc with Firefox 2.0. browser. I installed it and three minutes later, I'm back on the Bonneville Club. Now, if my operating system doesn't do something awful to corrupt it out of jealousy, I'll be good.

Thanks for the help, guys.

Windows 98 you say?? Let me dig around some.....

I found the Compaq restore disc and documentation that came with this Presario 5630, but when I tried to use it to restore the OS, it would not work. It called up Netscape, and appeared to attempt link to a site that probably is no longer supported. I know MS quit support for Win98 a few months ago. Maybe that'* what happened. The Firefox is working swell for now, so maybe that will be good enough.

I thought about Windows XP home upgrade for $99, but this machine is a little under powered for it with only 384 meg of RAM. Plus, it has been running non-stop since 1999, and I am beginning to wonder how long a hard drive can be reasonably expected to last? Also, over the years, I have removed, replaced and added disc drives and readers.

Compounding the problem is the fact that I am nearly computer illiterate.

You could pick up a new system cheaper than you could probably upgrade what you have. Especially since it'* a Compaq *shudder*

Yeah, I was looking at one at Sam'* Club yesterday. 200gig hd, .5 or 1 gig ? RAM, 4 different memory card ports, firewire, 3 usb'*, 2.5 mhz processor, dvd/cd burners, xp media edition OS, 17" lcd monitor for $599.

Oh yeah, its a Compaq! Some of us have had very good luck with Compaq, so I sure wouldn't be afraid to buy another one. I may be too cheap to buy one til this one goes completely belly-up, but that'* another story.

And can you imagine, my sweet wife thinks we should replace our 30 year old refrigerator that won't keep ice cream, before we buy a new computer. Man, are her priorities wacky or what?

Consider your online options as well, Bill. If you check out www.dell.com or www.gateway.com (among many others), you can select a base model, then customize it with nearly endless features. Very easy process. Check it out and see what kind of prices you can come up with.

I personally like Dells. They're not for people who want to go nuts with Mods, but they are decently priced. I'm on my 4th or 5th Dell now, and haven't had any issues I didn't cause myself.

Heck, dang near the whole company I work for runs on Dells. If they're good enough for one of, if not the, largest e-commerce service platforms in the world, they're good enough for me!

I will do that, Ben. And I will give proper consideration to Dell, MOS. Thanks for the links. I bought my current computer on-line 7 years ago. It was a really good deal at the time. The company is long-since out-of-business, though.

Something you can do to try and restore IE, click on start then Setting then control panel.
In the control pabel, click in Internet options.
Set your homepage to blank.
Under Temporary files, click on delete cookies and wait for the curser to go back to the arrow then click on clear files and wait again. Click on the setting button and make sure Every visit to the page is selected. Set the Disk space to use to around 10- 30 MB and click ok

In the history section, click clear history.

Click th OK button.

When you launch IE, keep an eye on the adress bar, If you see anything come up there before it crashes (besides BLANK that is) then your browser is probably hijacked and thats a whole different ballgame.

Let me know if it worked. I suspect that at least your homepage got jacked to something that doesn't work right on W98 and hopefully setting it to blank fixes it.