Aol 9.0

**Shard92** · March 6th, 2004, 12:07 PM

I have a customer that tried to upgrade form aol 5.0 to aol 9.0 optimized. The "upgrade didn't work the way he hoped... He wants to have his favorites and his address book moved from 5.0 to 9.0 is there an easy way of doing this?

Now the problem is aol 5.0 no longer will start up. 9.0 originally wouldn't even see his modem but I finally got all that working... but... now the addressbook/favorites ?

**MobilePCPhysician** · March 6th, 2004, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by Shard92

I have a customer that tried to upgrade form aol 5.0 to aol 9.0 optimized. The "upgrade didn't work the way he hoped... He wants to have his favorites and his address book moved from 5.0 to 9.0 is there an easy way of doing this?

Now the problem is aol 5.0 no longer will start up. 9.0 originally wouldn't even see his modem but I finally got all that working... but... now the addressbook/favorites ?

Uninstall 9.0. Re-install 9.0 as an upgrade. Will find 5.0 and upgrade from there. Copies previous settings.

**Shard92** · March 6th, 2004, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by MobilePCPhysician

Uninstall 9.0. Re-install 9.0 as an upgrade. Will find 5.0 and upgrade from there. Copies previous settings.

Thanks

**Orangeman** · March 6th, 2004, 01:21 PM

Also, AOL users only can use the following link for 24/7 tech support:

aol://4344:2452.ABwrite.26150839.560704739

Sounds to me like your customer's files are corrupted or he missed something in the installation. Upgrading is fairly easy. However I would make sure he was upgrading from disk, not from the internet.

If you want to PM me I can send you a free disk (aka: aol coaster....?)

Oh yes, and one last thing. The ORGANIZE folder is the folder with the address book. In all previous versions of AOL the ORGANIZE folder was in the main AOL folder. However in 9.0 the OrGANIZE folder got moved. In Win98 its now located in C:\windows\all users\application data\aol\C_America Online 9.0.

That may have been his problem. He can't find the address book because he moved the ORGANIZE folder to the WRONG PLACE!!!!!

**Shard92** · March 9th, 2004, 12:03 PM

Thanks for the responses.... it actually resolved itself... after a couple of boot ups it found both the address book and the favorites.... However when he came in to pick it up he wanted to check his e-mail so he clicked on read mail and the whole computer locks up!!! Now this is right after I had just been on making sure everything works.... A call to microsoft and they tell me to reset stored art file down to 10 megs and then back to 60 as the art files are corrupted and that does absolutely nothing for him.

What happens exactly is... When you try to get into any mail ( old/new/sent ) the window for the box begins to open but stays transparent except for the very top and locks the whole computer solid....

I hate AOL!!! He however needs it as he travels alot!! Living part of the year here and part in Alaska!

**NooNoo** · March 9th, 2004, 12:35 PM

Had something similar with compuserve... turned out the index was corrupt. Nothing that could be done as they weren't expecting to index more that a few thousand records, it was the 9999 record that killed it.

**Orangeman** · March 9th, 2004, 12:39 PM

You shouldn't be calling Microsoft, you should be contacting AOL.

Their direct help email is: aol://4344:2452.ABwrite.26150839.560704739

If you want to contact them by phone the number is:
1-800-827-6364 or
1-800-827-3338 or
1-800-846-2301

I've been using AOL for quite a while but the last problem you describe has thrown me for a loop. Frankly it sounds like either a virus or badly corrupted software.

The people over at AOL would be the best ones, imho, to deal with this....

Orangeman...

**Shard92** · March 9th, 2004, 01:21 PM

Originally Posted by Orangeman

You shouldn't be calling Microsoft, you should be contacting AOL.

Their direct help email is: aol://4344:2452.ABwrite.26150839.560704739

If you want to contact them by phone the number is:
1-800-827-6364 or
1-800-827-3338 or
1-800-846-2301

I've been using AOL for quite a while but the last problem you describe has thrown me for a loop. Frankly it sounds like either a virus or badly corrupted software.

The people over at AOL would be the best ones, imho, to deal with this....

Orangeman...

Your right orangeman!!! I did call aol on this one, I'm just getting two different cases confus-ed!!!! I had another one I had to call MSN on...

Well I uninstalled the aol9 and reinstalled ( though now I know why he installed it like a new connection. ) and that has cleared up the inbox problem. Now to check everything to make sure it's ALL working again... Oh and Noo he only had 80+ messages supposedly ( odd saturday I thought it was 90+? ).

The aol wouldn't install as an upgrade... You could select either to install as existing and then it gave you a choice of 1) upgrade 2) add existing account to this computer and 3) i don't remember... anyway once you selected that you couldn't go any farther... there the word click but the end of the word was gone and no button to click.... I tried 3 different cd's and got the same results!!!

Well I better get back to it as it was updating to see if it has it all sorted out now!!!

**Shard92** · March 9th, 2004, 01:58 PM

---update ---

Well it is now working... Hopefully this time it will still be working when the customer shows up.. The odd thing is... when I put his login on and went on he had his address book but no favorites again... It also put all of the other logins for that account on there. His wife's account came up with address book and favorites but his still didn't have it.. I finally logged on with his account and opened favorites, and let it sit. eventually the favorites showed up?!?

**Humilliation** · March 10th, 2004, 01:32 AM

It's the mystical potato head groove thing. Stories like this one makes me glad to be unemployed. Honestly, whenever a problem computer came in with AOL on it (back when I used to work on computers) I'd nuke AOL off of there. Sweep the registry of all AOL entries and then when everything was running correctly again, hand the system back with an AOL CD. AOL is easy enough to set up, lusername and password and you're in. One of the places I used to work at treated AOL as a virus because it caused more problems than any other ISP software, plus it updates itself or does whatever without giving you the option to quit the update process. Why must AOL just about update itself everytime you start it up. Does 9.0 still do the instant update when you first log in? Never seen any updates posted at their website and anytime there's a newer version you have to pop in the CD to upgrade to the newest version. I've always been suspicious about that. Here's to the users, bless them all.

**MobilePCPhysician** · March 10th, 2004, 02:26 AM

I had a storefront for years. Could not get Dsl, or cable there. Had to go with satellite. AOL provided that service. Had very few problems. Moved to a warehouse area and now provide Mobile services to business and residential customers. Now have cable Internet. I have kept AOL as a bring your own access. It provides us with 5 hours a month of dial up if needed.
Anyway, I have found that if there is an underlying problem with your computer, and you add AOL, the problems become more apparent. AOL will cause TCP/IP problems, connectivity issues with other ISP's.
These problems are similar to issues with MSN. When you have 4-5 times the subscribers as MSN, your problems become more well known.

We get calls from PeoplePC, Juno, Netzero customers all the time. When you have NewdotNet, CommonToolbar, and all the other crapware installed on your puter, you're going to have problems.

AOL forces a download on you to update software. If Microsoft did this, my business would slow way down. Idiot users getting updates from Microsoft would slow the progression of viruses, and basically protect them from themselves. Windows Update wants to push updates to people automatically.

If AOL was Microsoft, which they are trying to be, things would be way different.

**NooNoo** · March 10th, 2004, 08:07 AM

For the most part I would agree with you Mobile... however, consider this... 2k sp4 as an "update" on dialup... would it ever even download right?

**MobilePCPhysician** · March 10th, 2004, 11:09 AM

Yeah, you're right Noo. We lug machines back all the time that need critical updates, service packs.

I've been a beta tester for AOL for many years. I think I've had every error AOL has ever caused!!!

**slgrieb** · March 10th, 2004, 02:08 PM

AOL Nein, I think you mean.

**pt34** · March 12th, 2004, 01:58 PM

I have a windows ME standalone Pentium 3 machine. Ever since I upgraded to AOL 9.0, when I boot up I get a general "Windows Protection Error" due to the AOL Network Adapters. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the AOL adapters and it will boot fine once; but, then, when I reboot, I get the Windows Protection Error again! If I remove the ndis.vxd static driver, the machine will boot; but, of course, I cannot log into AOL until I load the AOL Network Adapters. Any ideas?