MSN MESSENGER CONTACT LIST ICONS

[happylinuxguy]

In my msn messenger contact list, all my contacts have the same icon, wether they're online, offline, away, etc.
And the main contact group icons have a black, instead of transparent bacground. It seems like they're corrupted of something. I've tried to uninstall and reinstall, uninstall and install an older version, repairing all icons with tweakui, and nothing has worked. Does anyone know if there is an icon cache somewhere that messenger pulls from or something? I've been searching for this problem for quite some time, and found nothing. Thanks in advance.

 

[happylinuxguy]

Also, one other program, Kazaa has the same type of icon corruption. It seems to be somehow related.

 

[vbainchicago]

Have you checked you PC for spy/adware with a program like Spybot Search and Destroy?

VBAinChicago

http://www.jjscomputing.com

http://www.blueboxshopping.com

 

[happylinuxguy]

Yes, I have. I use spybot search and destroy, and Ad-aware, and also norton antivirus, with all the latest definitions.

 

[noellees1]

Kazaa is just one big pain in the you know what, so get rid of it.
Get yourself a firewall (free ones like Keiro and Sygate work well)
This should sort you out.
A problem i had with MSN Messenger came from courruption of a file called oleaut32.dll someone on here gave me the link and it was fixed

 

[happylinuxguy]

well, i use the "lite" version of kazaa, but i did have the regular one installed once. I'll check out that file and see if that works. I installed zonealarm on here.

 

[happylinuxguy]

How do I replace the oleaut32.dll file. It's a protected file and won't let me delete it.

 

[noellees1]

i have no idea where it is but i got a link to an exe that replaced/updated that file.

 

[linney]

Removing adware & spyware
Before Posting a Hijack log file - Best Practices
faq608-4650

To get further information about any errors look in your Event viewer.

Look in the System or Application folder. You can get to the Event Viewer via right click My Computer icon and select Manage.

Any errors logged in the Event Viewer can be expanded by double clicking on the error line.

Take any event error I.D. number and search for it on these sites.

http://www.eventid.net/events.asp

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr.../prodtechnol/winxppro/support/EE_winxppro.asp

Some general things to try.

See if System Restore will get you back to a restore point before your problem with Messenger.

Try Safe Mode (Do you have this problem in Safe Mode?).

Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking.

Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy.
This will check your oleaut32.dll it should be version 3.50.5016.0 and a size of 569,344 bytes. Another thing you can try with it is to reregister it by typing the command regsvr32 Oleaut32.dll in the Start Run box and pressing OK.

HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/5/14.asp

If they don't work you could try repairing windows itself by running it over itself. You will lose all your windows updates but your files will be untouched.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/3/41.asp

 

[shyrath]

IT´S actually related to the NVIDIA driver from Windows Update. If you uninstall messenger 6.1 and then update your video driver from Nvidia.com and reïnstall Messenger the problem will go away

 

[happylinuxguy]

I found out what the REAL problem was. Norton utitlities was causing the problem. The icons got corrupted somehow, and norton was protecting the files or something so it couldn't refresh itself or anything. I uninstalled norton utilities and everything went back to normal.