Thread,
I posted this problem a while ago and finally solved it. I thought I should give a post mortem, in case anyone else ever runs into a similar problem. Here's what I posted:
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.
Later, I downloaded and ran Ace Utilities (a really nice program, you can get the download link at the "Dream Machine" iBox). Still found nothing wrong. Nothing running in my startup files either.
Then, by process of elimination, I reviewed every piece of software that could possibly be trying to access the internet: All Norton programs, Windows Update, etc. I still found nothing.
Then I thought about Internet Explorer (IE), itself. And I tried the following change in settings:
1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Click Tools > Internet Options.
3. When viewing the Internet Options window, click the Connections tab.
4. Select Never dial a connection.
5. Click Apply.
6. Click OK to close the Internet Options window.
This fixed the problem. However, I cannot figure out how in the world IE was doing this since I had always closed IE before trying to shut down the computer (and IE is, of course, closed when I boot up). If anyone can figure this out, I would love to know!
AI
