Hey, I didn't mean to "gush", it's just that I'm so thrilled to have a real person willing to help I almost didn't know how to act.....

Wow, do I feel stupid. I was running LW version 1.8 and it worked like a million. Now, not only did the upgrade poop its pants, but I can get the 1.8 installer to run. I'm dorked.....

I've actually gone through this exercise six times or so, and I'm convinced that it's real and very repeatable.

Also, I normally run a software firewall (Zone Alarm) and I've turned it off for all the "experements" listed below. It shoulden't be an issue.

So, here's where I'm at;

- Uninstall Java. Scan the registry for any "remnants". None found. Reboot.

- Download a fresh copy of the Java VM. It runs and installs fine. The version is 1.3.1_02 and installs in a subdirectory of that name. Reboot

- Attempt to run the LimeWire installer. Both 2.X and 1.X installers crash at the same point; I get to the point where it tries to retreive:

http://www.installengine.com/Msiengine20/instmsia.exe

...and the install won't go any further. I'm offerd the choices of "Retry" or "Cancel" and many, many retries yeild nothing. I again check the registry for any "fragments" find none, and reboot.

- I've downloaded both the packages you recommended. I get identical results with both. I unzip them into a directory I want. It's path is:

c:\Internet Tools\LimeWire

Double clicking on the RunLime.jar file gets me the splash screen, the program seems to 'try' to start, and then I get the following error message:

JAVAW.EXE
Assertion failed: (lock & JAWT_LOCK_ERROR) == 0, file CBanner.cpp line 36

...pressing "OK" gets me the following:

JAVAW.EXE
Abnormal program termination

...pressing "OK" closes the whole show up.

I actually had it work right once. The next time I tried it, it went back to this behaviour. I've rebooted multiple times, so it's not like an environmental variable is getting toggled incorrectly.

If I use the runlime.bat file, the program actually starts and runs....with Java in a DOS window. The only problem with this is that the program won't exit. I'm not confusing minimizing the program to the taskbar with a real exit request. The only way that I can get the program to quit is to force the closure of the DOS box, and when I do that, any changes I've made in the program (like the directories I want to share or number of connections to keep alive) is lost.

Other info that may be of interest - OS here is WME. Every other hardware / software I've tried is very fast and very stable. Internet connection is a cable modem (ethernet, not USB), but every and I do mean every other internet aware application has no problems. It's not like the TCP/IP stack is not installed correctly or otherwise hosed.

Man, I wish I'd have stayed with V1.8........

Regards - B.B.S.