hi, at home i have my computer, and 3 laptops - one that my sister uses and one my mum uses and one when my brother and his g/f are here to use.
me and my mum can both sign on on the PC's we use, and on the laptop my bro uses. but my sister cant sign on on the laptop she uses.
it isnt her account as when on another PC she can sign on with no problems.
she can access the internet and use P2P etc all with no problems. but MSN doesnt work. she uses WLM now and cant sign in on that either (she has been registered as used to use it) and also widows messenger (not live messenger, just windows messenger)
i have formatted the laptop, thinking it could just be some firewall settings (though she had no firewall, i also disabled windows firewall) she now has norton, which  have never had to change the settings of and i use the same copy on all my laptops/computers and have never had problems. we are behind a router - but that has never given us such problem before (it isnt formatting it thathas caused the router to play up for her connection cos i have formatted all the PC's a few times before and everything always worked.)
that laptop is running windows XP serive pack 2

do you know why that laptop is refusing all IM programs - even after a format (so it cant be any kind of settings) ?

thanks

is there any error shown?

EDIT: I found this online. Help . Hope this helps

thanks for the link - i'll check the error code later (there is one) and edit my post

Reformatting was quite drastic: did you try the COnnectivity Troubleshooter at all?

it had to be formattted anyway - my sister screwed up a few things - and also i thought it would be best as it would remove all settings (obv.)
i tried the connection troubleshooter yes - it shows everything as working fine - and i click repair but it still doesnt work

i have the error code now:
80048820
extended error code:
80048412

You could try with norton disabled.... it used to give me problems when installed in this laptop... disable it on the taskbar and stop any norton related process after it, sometimes it still has active proceses...

i have disabled norton also, still not working - it hasnt given me any problems before, when installed on my PC, old PC, any of the laptops (including the one in question)
also - this problem existed when i had McAfee on there (before formatting it)