Ok, this has been going on since February. I have AOL open all the time while I'm at work. I'm also usually running quickbooks 08, and other various documents. It doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes it doesn't happen at all! Other times it happens as many as 6 times a day. I will go to click on my mail and bam everything shuts off and reboots no error code, nothing just reboots! I have been in contact with Dell support. They have tried all kinds of things and can not figure out what is going on. I uninstalled AOL and reloaded it hoeping that would fix it but to no avail. Now not only does it shut down when I click on my mail it also shuts down when I switch from one screen name ot another. This is a major problem!! It is very frustrating. Any help would be great! Thanks

I've got two words for you that will work like magic - "Ditch AOL". That's the only sure fire remedy for this situation. I hated AOL and won't go into this as I don't want to bore you, but take it from me, this problem will only get worse or better yet, you'll have MORE fun problems from AOL. Just ditch the jerks and go on with your life without them. Trust me, they won't miss you one iota and will be happily causing havoc to someone else.

Did you ever figure anything out? I am having the same problem! I have several programs open at once, but today I ONLY had AOL open. A soon as I click on the Read Mail icon, bam, my computer reboots. Very frustrating when several programs are open... Let me know if you've resolved your problem! I also have a Dell.

I agree with twinkiedooter. AOL is just... unmanageable. It replaces files on the computer with special "AOL Versions" and doesn't put the original files back when you uninstall, and it's so intrusive into other parts of the computer...

You can still get to you contact list from AOL Instant Messenger, and I believe you can still get to emails also, from the website... but I would definitely ditch the AOL program.

If you really want to figure out what's causing that, you could try the event log. Right click on my computer and go to manage, then you should be able to get to Application Log and System Log from there. A lot of errors and warning you see are harmless, but you could find some useful information on what was happening.

I apprechiate all your responses~ Well, still no fix. I'm so frustrated!! I have had Dell's tech. support on the phone several times. (by the way they are awesome! ) Anways they have tried all sorts of things and still nothing! But it seems to only happen in AOL! However there are no errors in my system log to record the event witch, is totally weird because it has only gotten worse! AOL will not help me because they are asses! There is no wich way about it. I have to pay for tech. support and I don't feel that I should! I have never had a problem with AOL until now! I have unloaded AOL and reloaded it and it seemed to work but now it is worse than ever! I'm just so frustrated bvecasue all our business e-mails are on AOL and I don't want to change them! So I don't know what to do! It's very frustrating! ANy suggestions/help would be apprechiated!

No luck here either, but I will keep you posted. I've been documenting it, and it only happens when I go to read my AOL mail. Again, I'll check back & keep you posted. Let me know if you figure anything out, also!

It isn't called AOHell for nothing you know, it isn't the Dell that is the problem, good luck :-)

You might try updating the drivers for your graphics adapter if they aren't the latest version. Long shot, but I experienced a similar issue many years ago with Microsoft Works when the program changed the mouse cursor.

If you're running a recent version of Windows, you can also boot into safe mode with networking by pressing F8 repeatedly at bootup until you get the startup choices menu and see if the issue persists.

Still having the problem I have started just using AOL in internet explorer when I do that it doesn't shut off. Such a pain. Does anyone know of software or an e-mail that will forward my AOL stuff to another address and be able to reply with the AOL address?

I've been doing the same thing - accessing AOL through Internet Explorer. I really am used to AOL, and like the program, except for the rebooting. It only does it on one computer of the 4 I use (2 at work, 1 at home, & one laptop). I find myself flinching every time I log on, however! I don't like going through IE, but like you, find it doesn't shut my system down if I use it that way. Did you try updating your graphics driver, as suggested? I plan to try that Tuesday.
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Ok I bit the bullet and signed up for aol's extended service ! Egh..! 9.95 a month geese! So I called there tech line. Went through my system. Removed AOL and defraged the computer still no resolve. The tech told me the next step would be to do a system restore! I don't want to do that because it's may not fix the problem and I would be left with having to reformat my computer! So if anyone tries it let me know how it goes. I have found that you can hover over the mail box and it shows you what's in the mail box and you can ither open the box from there or you can just click on the e-mail this seems to work and not "reboot" the computer. I too find explorer annoying! So will see how this goes! EGH>>>>! If anyone else finds a solution please let me know. I will try calling the tech support again and tell them that there are other people put there that are having this problem! If anyone wants me to call and ask them anything just let me know. The less money we give them the better! HaHA~

You can keep paying AOL more money if you want, but why do you want to keep paying them more to solve their problems? I don't know for a fact that this is an AOL problem. I just know it causes a lot of problems and does a lot without your permission, which no program should be doing. But if AOL is the problem (and it seems to happen when you use their email), then why should you have to do a system restore? It's like paying for a warranty on a car, and then when it breaks, having to pay for it to be fixed, and then having to fix it yourself. Huh?

And there are other things to use besides Internet Explorer. (Just for the record, Explorer is a way to navigate through folders & files on the hard drive. Internet Explorer is the browser.)

What a shame they couldn't *really* help you!
I have found that if I run Ad-Aware frequently, it seems to cut down on the frequency of the number of shutdowns. If I run it, I won't have a problem for a few days; the longer I wait between runs, then I start having problems. So I re-run Ad-Aware, and I'm OK for a few more days. I wonder if there is a conflict with AOL and some other "junk" on my system. I'm like you, though; I dislike using Internet Explorer for my e-mail. :(

Curious. It wouldn't surprise me a whole lot if there's spy/malware that targets AOL somehow.

All the more reason... :-)

Does anyone know of an e-mail server that is like AOL? I can leave it on all day and it will notify me of e-mail I receive? And I can multiple e-mail accounts and be able to switch between them or have them connected? I heard that gmail will forward my AOL mail to it? I just don't know what is a good option? I'm just sick of AOL!

Well, personally, when I said ditch the AOL, I meant the whole thing, not just the email.

Any web-based email (gmail, hotmail, lycos, or any one of the other 3 billion ones that exist) you can leave open all the time simply by leaving the browser open. If it's web-based, it's just a web page. It's not like AOL where the email is inside their special browser. It would be a lot like coming here. You can leave this page open in a browser & keep it minimized, go off & do whatever, & click on that tab whenever you like and look at it. You can then click on the Check Mail button to refresh, or hitting Ctrl-F5 does a complete refresh of any web page.

As for forwarding, it doesn't sound right that gmail would do the forwarding. You may be talking about POP3. You have some different options there, that is, if you want to keep the AOL, but be able to get your email in some other manner. And all of this is partly based on what AOL is capable of, and that I don't know because I avoid AOL like the plague. Forwarding would be done from AOL. i.e. see if there's something in your settings about forwarding, and then you'd tell it the address (like at gmail) that you want to forward to. Then everything coming in automatically goes to your new address.

POP3 can be used with many different emails, and with an email client. AOL has to be POP3 capable, and the new email would have to allow it. i.e. if you want gmail, then gmail has to be capable of bringing in your email via this method. (This is not the same as "forwarding.") You'd have to go to AOL and find the settings needed to be used like the incoming & outgoing IP addresses.

You can also do this with an email client like Outlook Express, but I'm sure the recommendation around here is for Thunderbird. :) (I don't like them, so I know nothing about Thunderbird and have only played around with Outlook Express.) This is more difficult to set up than if you just forward it to another email account, but there's a lot of options also. I know in OE you can set it up to check for messages at whatever interval you want and to play a sound when stuff comes in. This likely could be true of Thunderbird too, don't know.

And, you can always use another browser besides Internet Explorer, like Firefox or Opera or even Netscape. I use Firefox most of the time.

Oh, last note. I have AT&T, and I know that if you switch to them (for ISP), they'll let you keep your AOL address so that you don't have to change emails with everyone. And you can do forwarding and POP3 with most emails that I'm aware of. That's not a recommendation for AT&T -- I'm rather ticked at them right now myself, but I've been with them for quite a while and the internet service itself has been fine. (That's not to say anything about their customer service, which s*cks.)

Oh yeah, separate accounts. A lot of emails allow you to have more than one ID. Some of them may be truly separate accounts and you'd have to log in to each separately. But just as an example, for my AT&T, if I'm logged in under my main ID, I can access any other ID from there. I don't really have them "connected" in any way, and I'm not sure there would be a way to do that.

Unless of course you want to just forward everything to one account. I don't know specifically about gmail, but if you can have more than one ID, you could probably forward one ID to another ID. And for a decent email, you should also be able to filter it into folders set up for those ID's so it goes into a separate place.

I just checked gmail. You can do filters. Since I don't have an account I can't check a lot of details, but it says you can filter "based on any combination of keywords, sender, recipients, and more." It's calling folders "labels." And you can do POP3. You can also use their chat to talk to people with AIM, if you've used that. The one thing I can't find is how many ID's you can get. But... it says you can use the POP3 to access mail from up to 5 addresses. So even with one ID, you could still get up to 5 from AOL, and then filter them by your ID's.

I have had the same problem let me know if you figure anything out!