Basic computer maintenance.
Get a startup manager program and use it to disable stuff
that autostarts with windows. And then reboot the computer.
Then get two virus scans from two different scanners.
Use your resident AV program (you do have one don't you)
and then use one of the free online AV scanners.
Then do a spyware/adware scan.
Also defragment your hard drive.

All of this will do wonders for your computer.

Pooh Bear

Thanks so much for your help. I'm not sure what a AV program is...

Anti-virus.

Even though AOL software itself may not be causing this, one other thing you might want to do is call AOL tech support. It may take two or three calls, but sooner or later you'll get in touch with a tech support person who will be pretty helpful. He or she can talk you through some of these procedures. They will stay on the phone with you for an hour if necessary.

Sorry to tell you, but using AOL is your biggest problem.

Your computer is heavily laden with spyware, malware and most likely trojans and virii.

Your best bet is to take your computer to a reliable dealer and have them wipe all the junk programs, virii, etc., including AOL, off your system. Then get a new ISP which doesn't allow all that crap to be downloaded.

Stop using Kazaa, Bonzai Buddy, and other P2P programs, and get a decent firewall and antivirus software.

You most likely need to delete cookies and temp files if you computer does not load web sites and also is slow.
Go to your tool bar menu and since you are on AOL , click on the icon of "settings". Then a page will come up showing an idex for your AOL experiences. Go to INternet settings ( underneath the I in the index alphabet) and double-click to open the settings window. There are tabs at the top that are sort of like headlines. Click on settings and when you see the words cookies, temp folders etc., click delete.
*** Remember that when you delete cookies, you will have to re-enter your User ID and Password for all forums and special sites that require them. Before you delete them , make a new folder that is under MY documents and title it as
"My User ID and Passwords " so that you can easily find them to re-enter them on the sites that need them
( including this site).
I have used AOL for 6-8 years and do not have any bad experiences with it and many people still criticise it from old , long ago issues and they have not bothered to re-check it's capabilities and will tell you to dump it, because they have a narrow old mind-set.
I have the MAX in hard drive space and memory and processor, and every 3 months, I now know that pages may not load or even give me a "timed out" message, and that means I need to take 10 minutes to delete cookies and temp files.
Good luck and always feel free to ask questions , even if some responders come across as harsh or critical. They have forgotten what it means to be brand new in using a computer and learning their way around all of the settings and programs.
There is a Computer Forum on this THS site and there are thousands of Q and A and search function and archive and the people there will also be of enormous help to you.
Patricia

You can obtain an AntiVirus program from Spyware Removal for free. Also, what operating system are you running? Does a reboot not fix your issue? Windows 98 and ME are notorious for having these kinds of issues and about the only fixes are to do a complete system reinstall. Though buying a new computer is probably the easiest/best method.

I have encountered the same problem when running Mozilla Firefox (1.6) & Thunderbird, and AOL 9.0 Security Edition at the same time.

I can vouch for Beano's commentary...from my own extensive experience.

You can meticulously remove and dump all of AOL's extraneous included or built-in garbage.
You can run Norton Anti-Virus, Spybot, and AdAware until you're completely free of any and all bugs.
You can tweak Windows ME to run stable and flawlessly by following the excellent tips at Annoyances.org.
You can dump your Tempoary Internet Files until there isn't a file to be seen.
You can remove all unnecessary .EXEs from startup until you're running the absolute minimum of programs nessesary.

I've BEEN THROUGH IT ALL (on both my systems), and I can say with certainty:

You will NOT cure this problem if you insist on running the AOL browser interface with more then two programs - at least, not until some brilliant programmer at AOL cleans up the coding of their application and releases a stable version. In other words, when pigs fly.

There's only one way around it, and that is to use the AOL Dialer to log in, and Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird as your browser and email client, respectively - and don't start the AOL browser while you're running either unless you want to commit computer murder.

Take care,

-Kurt

A side note: AOL 9.0 standard is tolerable to work with; the 9.0 S.E. is a nightmare of errors and bad coding.