First of all, thank you for the assistance.
Whew. So much info. to give to be complete.

Dell computer running WinXP, Media Edition
Trying to run Limewire 4.10.9

The computer is relatively new. I had Limewire on it and running perfectly, right after I bought it.
When my HD's looked too small, I called Dell. It turns out that Dell has this "Datasafe" option that I did not want installed. The VERY helpful tech's in India told me I would have to delete my RAID bios and format my drive.
Since I thought I was going to have to reinstall Windows, I went ahead and deleted LW.

I ended up pressuring Dell into a free Software support session and the Software tech helped me take care of all of that without needing to reformat/reinstall.
After that, when I tried to reinstall Limewire, it would not work.
After install, I click on the icon and it goes to the white box, then the larger gray window with the language options title bar.
I tried everything on the previous sticky thread that LordoftheRings suggests.
I have even gone so far as to uninstall LW, then remove all traces of it from the registry before reinstalling.
I can not tell you how much I would appreciate someone helping me with this.

Thank you.
Eric

When you say that you tried everything in the previous sticky, which one do you mean? The "LW loading blank" sticky sounds like it deals with your problem. If you haven't looked at that one, I think you should

I don't think that one is right for me. It seems to be for people who get into LW but cannot use it. i cannot even get LW to open. The sticky that made sense for the issue I'm having is this one:

Fixes for Limewire when LW isn't operating as it should

"Fixes for Limewire when LW isn't working as it should"

I have, literally, tried every option presented there, including a few variations of my own (restarting between the uninstall and installs, including between EACH intsall).

Thank you SO much for looking and offering me the advice.
I sincerely appreciate it.

Though I don't think it is the issue, I am going to go check out my graphics card settings (ATI radeon 256).

Eric

If that's no good, try doing everything again (delete prefs, reinstall Java) and try reinstalling LW using the offline installer, there's a link here
LimeWire Installation Help Needed

See this thread for a few extra tips if LW won't open
Help, my LimeWire wont open!

Good luck!

Dear mr/ms share with me 12 or something,

yeah I had been having that problem too. now i cant believe I didnt do this. You right click limewire, go to compatibility and disable visual themes. Also running it in 256 colors but I havent tried without it yet. Thats how you solve it.


bye

Well, Joshgrr... your tip did NOT fix it.
It DID, however, inspire me.

I did not know that all of that extra stuff was there in the properties box. Since it was, however, I began messing with it.

I am running Windows XP, Media Center Edition.
Looking in the properties box, I saw that it was set to be compatable with Windows 2000. Shoot, I thought, that might be the issue right there.
The problem, though, was that there is no Windows XP option. There is only 95, 98, NT 4.0 (service pack 5) and 2000.

I tried 95. No dice.
I tried 98. No dice.
I tried NT... Lord have mercy, it worked!

I don't know why. I don't understand why.
Who knows, though. Maybe it will help someone in the future.

If you are reading this, and you are getting the grey screen at startup, try right clicking the icon, going into the properties dialog box, and changing your "Compatibility Mode" to something else... even if what you are trying seems like the best option.

Thanks again to everyone who offered help.


Oh, and Josh... I'm a Mr.



Eric

Hi, I am having basically the same problem, I cant click anything in limewire at all. I tried all that you guys said to try and none of it helps. The limewire Im running is LW PRO version 4.12.3. Please help me out. Thanks