Windows Live Messenger doesn't load

I haven't had any luck finding the answer to this problem (close but not
quite). Nothing happens after clicking the icon (although it does show in the
task manager). Only after turning off the firewall or the wireless network
card does the sign in screen show up. Then everything can be turned back on
and it works fine. Details on what happenned before the problem started are
assumptions but here they are. The messenger crashed and attempts to restart
the computer normally failed. The computer could be shut down by pressing the
power button for about 5 seconds (what I call a forced shutdown). The
computer was then restarted and it had an error message from Symantec (I
don't remember what it was). I uninstalled Norton and installed Eset NOD32
antivirus software. That was when the problem with Windows Live Messenger was
noticed. WLM was uninstalled and installed several times but nothing seems to
work. I found a post about the sign in problems and decided to install the
MSN messenger 7.5. This works but I am wondering if there is a setting I am
missing on the firewall (restored defaults, rechecked the exceptions) or is
there something I am missing on the AV software (I haven't looked into it yet
but I will)? I do have NOD32 running on several machines with WLM 8.1 without
any problems. If I update to WML from msn7.5, will I have the same problem (I
will probably try this anyway unless someone tells me not to)? Other details:
Old Vaio Laptop, Windows XP Home edition with all updates, wireless running
at 11 Mbs (I think this is slow and I hope to get it faster but it is an old
machine).
Thanks for your time
Weitu

Greetings,

What's your describing is a classic case of the wireless router sending invalid UPnP packets
which Messenger is getting confused about, hence why disabling the network makes it start
working.

Reset the router (aka unplug and plug back in) and if that doesn't resolve it, try seeing if
there's a firmware update for the router at the router manufacturers website.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2007 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
--


"Weitu" <> wrote in message
news:F33D10DA-F5C2-4E20-80A9-...
>I haven't had any luck finding the answer to this problem (close but not
> quite). Nothing happens after clicking the icon (although it does show in the
> task manager). Only after turning off the firewall or the wireless network
> card does the sign in screen show up. Then everything can be turned back on
> and it works fine. Details on what happenned before the problem started are
> assumptions but here they are. The messenger crashed and attempts to restart
> the computer normally failed. The computer could be shut down by pressing the
> power button for about 5 seconds (what I call a forced shutdown). The
> computer was then restarted and it had an error message from Symantec (I
> don't remember what it was). I uninstalled Norton and installed Eset NOD32
> antivirus software. That was when the problem with Windows Live Messenger was
> noticed. WLM was uninstalled and installed several times but nothing seems to
> work. I found a post about the sign in problems and decided to install the
> MSN messenger 7.5. This works but I am wondering if there is a setting I am
> missing on the firewall (restored defaults, rechecked the exceptions) or is
> there something I am missing on the AV software (I haven't looked into it yet
> but I will)? I do have NOD32 running on several machines with WLM 8.1 without
> any problems. If I update to WML from msn7.5, will I have the same problem (I
> will probably try this anyway unless someone tells me not to)? Other details:
> Old Vaio Laptop, Windows XP Home edition with all updates, wireless running
> at 11 Mbs (I think this is slow and I hope to get it faster but it is an old
> machine).
> Thanks for your time
> Weitu