Computer Learning

[greg s]

Hi folks. I have posted a few solutions for people here, but have never needed to ask for help. That time has now come

background:

Sony Vaio Pentium III laptop
Windows 98, second edition
MSN version 8.5
MS IE Version 6.0
Norton Antivirus
Norton Firewall

Problem:

Whenever I cold boot the PC, the sign-in window for MSN opens automatically. MSN is not listed in my start-up items. This is not really a problem (although this never happened until the other part of the problem manifested itself). What is a problem is at shut down. I close all applications, click shut down, the PC goes through the normal shut down routine. But before I see the "clouds" window (where it says "windows is shutting down" at the bottom of the screen), the sign in screen for MSN starts popping up again. Sometimes I have to close the sign in window three times, then the computer shuts down normally. Other times, the computer will hang on the "clouds" screen without shutting down, forcing me to use the hard reset to shut down the PC (and requiring scandisk at the next boot).

I've looked at all my settings and can find nothing that would cause this. I hadn't changed any settings or installed any software before this started. I've searched the MSN site for ideas, to no avail. Antivirus scans come out clean. Spybot scans reveal nothing. I am current on all Windows, MSN, IE, A/V, and firewall updates.

Anyone have any ideas??

TIA,