I have a very annoying problem that I can not fix. Well, there's actual 2 problems. The first problem is ALL smilies show up as dead images, except in AIM chatrooms. The second problem is when someone sends me a picture over AIM direct connection, it doesn't show. I've tolerated it long enough. Today I made several attempts to fix it. I tried:
[list]
[*] Playing with my settings.
[*] I uninstalled and deleted AIM, then I redownloaded it and reinstalled.
[*] I even got a new screenname.
[/list]
NOTHING worked. Anybody have a clue what's causing it and how I can fix it?
Might be spyware or adware, check for that.
Yeah that's about all I can think of...Hopefully it's not a virus, or a worm, I had one of those to screw with my AOL, and it started adding odd things to it, and it ate files...That was before I knew anything about taking care of computers, so I didn't know what to do.
Yeah, ran Spybot Search and Destroy. There was infact spyware attached to it. It was most likely the thing causing the problem. BUT! Now I have a bigger problem. AIM is completely shot. I can't send messages, there's this little window on the top of the IM window (the blue bar at the top) which flashes rapidly. Whenever I attempt to contact someone, or whenever they contact me and I try to reply, as soon as I push a key, it brings up a Chatroom invite fot the person I'm attempting to contact. Then, the window locks up, but it doesn't freeze, just locks up and dies.
I thought maybe it didn't completely get rid of the spyware. I scanned again, and it found nothing.
Once again, suggestions?
if you're willing to, system recovery would be an option. just save your files to a disk and try installing aim again. though cleaning out my entire system would be the last thing i would want to do.
bah, i think i meant documents. last time i did system recovery it wiped out my documents so that might be it. i dunno this kind of stuff because im not a computer expert or anything but its still an option.
Uh, I think Dericks does the same thing every now and then...I forget what all he said it does, but at random times his AIM window messes up...You may ask him about it, you two may have the same problems.
System Backup could of been an option. BUT, it's been like this so long, I can't back up far enough to bring it back. If system Reboot is what must be done, then I will do that.
But right now, I'm checking for viruses.
Edit..
Okay, I have done all of which I can think of. I'm spyware, adware, and virus free. YET, AIM remains messed up. I think I have no choice but system recovery, unless I get another option between now and tomorrow afternoon.
Double post.
I did a backup on the system, and it brought me back to square one. AIM works now, but the spyware is back.
So, I took a screenshot of what it does. Maybe someone can now Identify it:
[IMG]http://www.vgchat.com/~linkman/images/aim_broken.gif[/IMG]
That thing I put a red circle around on the top shows up on Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger too.
Ooo...Well that kind of looks like Default smilies, Custom Smilies, AIM games, and AIM tools, but why would that show up on the AIM window...Do you have AIM and AOL? (I know a pretty good bit of people that do that) If so then you may can use the AOL repair system they have set up, and if not...I don't know if there are any other repair systems out there you may can use.
There might be some information left in your data folders / registry pertaining to the error, so if you think you're going to uninstall AIM again, try it like this:
Go to the Add/Remove Programs dialog and remove it as normal.
Go to My Computer, and unhide your folders through Tools, Folder Options.
Go to C:\Documents and Settings\*username*\Application Data\ and from there, delete the \Aim folder.
Next, click Start, Run, and type in "regedit". From there, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\America Online and delete the America Online entry (or if you have other AOL software, just delete the "AOL Instant Messenger" folder.
Do the same for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\America Online and HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-602162358-1897051121-725345543-1003\Software\America Online.
At this point, you can scan for viruses and spyware and try reinstalling it. Hopefully it solves the attached spyware issue.