1. Make sure that you have specified a temp directory and that the folder exists.
1. For Navigator: Check to see that you have a valid temporary directory set in Netscape Navigator. From the Options menu, select General Preferences and check what's in the Temp Directory field; make sure the directory shown there actually exists on your computer.
2. For Communicator: make sure that the following line is in your autoexec.bat:

set temp = c:\temp
Also, make sure that the directory exists and delete all files that are not currently in use from that directory (it will warn you when a file is in use; do not delete these).
2. Make sure that there is no corruption in the Netscape data files.
For Communicator, create a new profile to resolve the problem:
1. Shut down Communicator.
2. Go to the Start menu, go to Programs, go to the Netscape Communicator menu, go into Utilities, and choose User Profile Manager.
3. Create a new profile for yourself using all of the information from your old profile (i.e. Mail server settings) but make sure to name the profile something different so that it doesn't overwrite your old profile. For example, if your old profile was named jsmith, name the new one jsmith2.
4. Check to make sure that the new profile was created successfully (a new profile will start at the "Welcome to Communicator" page instead of your homepage).Then shut down Communicator.
5. Open up Explorer, go to your User directory: C:\Program Files\Netscape\Users\ and then the old profile name, and copy the Mail folder, the News folder, the bookmark.htm file, and the abook.nab file, and any .na2 files into the new profile directory.
6. Check to make sure that everything is working and go back to the User Profile Manager to delete your old profile.

For Navigator, you may have a corrupt address.htm file, bookmark.htm file, or a corrupt Mail folder.

1. Shut down Netscape.
2. Using Windows Explorer, go into your Navigator directory (By default it is usually C:\Program Files\Netscape\Navigator) and rename the Mail folder to Oldmail, the address.htm to address.old, and the bookmark.htm to bookmark.old.
3. Remove both the Cache folder and the netscape.hst file.
4. When you restart Netscape, a new Mail folder, address book, bookmark file, Cache folder, and History file will be automatically created for you.
5. Check to make sure that the new items are working (open up Messenger, your bookmarks and Address Book) and that Netscape is no longer crashing.
6. To import your Mail, bookmarks, and addresses:
1. Shut down Netscape, go to the Oldmail folder, and copy any of the mail folders you wish to keep (i.e.. Inbox) into your new Mail folder.
2. Go to the Bookmarks menu, in the Bookmark window go to the File menu, choose Import, and select the bookmark.old to import them into your current bookmark file.
3. Go to the Address Book menu, in the Address Book window go to the File menu, choose Import, and select the address.old to import them into your current bookmark file.
7. Manually remove the Cache and history files on Navigator to make sure that they're not the cause of the problem. To do so, shut down Netscape. Then, using File Manager, Windows Explorer, or a DOS prompt, locate the netscape.hst file (it should be under your \Netscape directory) and delete it. Then locate the Cache folder (it should be one level below) and delete all the files from that directory.


3. Do a clean installation of Communicator.
1. If you need to download the installation files (you should if you're using anything older than Communicator 4.5), please visit the following location:
ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/communicator/english/. Here, choose the latest version. On the next page pick the operating system you use. On the next page pick the "complete_install" link. You will now be brought to the Download page. Once there, click on filename with the largest number of bytes shown next to it.
2. Once you've downloaded the installation file:
1. Go to the Start Menu, choose Settings, and choose Control Panel. Double-click Add/Remove Programs. Make sure the Install/Uninstall tab is displayed. Scroll down the list until you find Netscape. Select Netscape and click the Add/Remove button, and then follow the prompts through the rest of the process.
2. Open Explorer and go to the directory where Netscape was installed (c:\Program Files\Netscape\ for Windows 95/98/NT, C:\Netscape for Windows 3.1). Copy bookmark.htm, and address.htm or abook.nab as well as the Mail and News folders to your desktop or a floppy disk.
3. Once you've copied the files you wish to save, delete all instances of the word netscape except for the ones that you have saved (i.e. if you put your bookmarks into a directory named "Netscape Saved" don't delete that folder).

   To delete Netscape files in Windows 95/98/NT:

   • Click the Start button and select Find, Files or Folders.
   • In the Named field, type: netscape
   • Click the Find Now button.
   • Highlight all the files present and delete them.

   To delete Netscape files in Windows 3.1:

   • Search for and delete these files by using the following commands from a DOS prompt:
   • CD \
   • DIR /S netscape

4. Run both ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter on your hard drive to ensure that there are no errors. To do this on Windows, click the Start button and choose Programs, Accessories, System Tools, ScanDisk. After ScanDisk has finished running, click the Start button and choose Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter.
5. Once the drive has been checked and is error free, make sure that that all non-essential programs (especially virus scanners and screen savers) have been shut down. If you have any programs running during the install this can and will cause you problems. The biggest culprit is Anti-Virus software. Please disable this before you uninstall and reinstall. You will have to consult your manual or talk with your Anti-Virus tech support for the proper way to disable it temporarily. Other programs like First Aid, Shell Programs like Norton Navigator, etc. need to be turned off as well. For best results, the only things running should be Windows and the Netscape Install. Install Netscape again by double-clicking the installation file.
3. Simplify and optimize your computer's configuration as much as possible.
1. First, run the ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter programs on your hard disk to make sure that there are no problems with the the files on your system. To do this on Windows, click the Start button and choose Programs, Accessories, System Tools, ScanDisk. After ScanDisk has finished running, click the Start button and choose Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter.
2. Next, make sure you have plenty of free disk space. You should have at minimum 50 megabytes (or more) of space available on your hard disk. If you have less than 40 megabytes or so available, you will encounter trouble. Try removing some unneeded software from the system to free up some space (see next item for more information on clearing up some disk space.
3. Make sure that all .TMP files and files whose names start with a tilde ('~') have been completely removed from the system (see how below). Temporary files created by an application are usually deleted when the application closes, but sometimes these files are left behind and clutter your hard disk. There may be some that are active and you will be unable to remove these, so don't bother with them. The ones that should be eliminated will go quietly.

Deleting Temp Files in Windows 95/98/NT:

• Click the Start button and select Find, Files or Folders.
• In the Named field, type: *.tmp
• Click the Find Now button.
• Highlight all the files present and delete them.
• In the Named field, type: ~*.*
• Click the Find Now button.
• Highlight all the files present and delete them.

To delete temp file in Windows 3.1, search for and delete these files by using the following commands from a DOS prompt:

• CD \
• DIR /S *.TMP
• DIR /S ~*.*
Again, delete any files whose names appear that the operating system does not complain about being currently in use.
4. Make sure your TEMP folders are empty. They are located usually located off the ROOT directory and the WINDOWS directory (e.g. c:\TEMP and c:\windows\TEMP). You may not have one from the ROOT directory. If there are any files, move or delete them. There should not be anything there but active .TMP files (which you cannot and should not move).
5. If you have a screen saver or an anti-virus program installed on your computer, disable it for now. (Check the program's documentation to find out how to turn it off.) These kinds of programs can often interfere with a computer's operation, and you can re-enable them once you've got the system back in working order.
4. If you're familiar with your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files and you know that you're loading a lot of nonessential programs there, then try commenting some of them out with the REM command and rebooting to see if that has any effect on the problem.
5. Make sure you don't have any programs in your Startup folder and that your system configuration is set to the defaults:


1. Temporarily move anything in your 'Startup' folder (in the Start menu) or program group to another location, then restart Windows or reboot.
2. Edit your WIN.INI file (with Notepad) and put a semicolon (';') at the very beginning of the 'RUN=...' and 'LOAD=...' lines.
3. In SYSTEM.INI, make sure the SHELL= line reads SHELL=PROGMAN.EXE (for Windows 3.1/3.11 or NT 3.51) or SHELL=EXPLORER.EXE (for Windows 95/98 or NT 4.0). If your shell is something else, it means that you are using some external third party Windows shell. This could cause problems. Consult the documentation for that program to find out how to disable it (temporarily, for troubleshooting purposes) and restore the default Windows shell.
4. To eliminate any possible conflicts with your video driver, set Windows to use the standard VGA video driver instead (640 x 480 x 16 colors). This should work with any monitor. Again, this is just a temporary measure to help diagnose problems.


1. In Windows 3.1 and 3.11: Run the "Setup" program (its icon is in the Main program group, or run SETUP.EXE in the WINDOWS directory). Go to the Options menu and select Change System Settings, and from the Video list, choose VGA. Click OK, then restart Windows.
2. In Windows 95/98: Go to the Start menu and choose Settings, choose Control Panel, then double-click Display. Choose the Settings tab and click "Change Display Type". (Make a note of the "adapter type" it shows you so you can change back to this later.) Then click on Change and select "Show All Devices". In the left-hand box, click on "Standard Display Type", and on the right, choose VGA. Reboot your computer.
3. In Windows NT: From the startup boot menu, select the menu choice which boots your system in "VGA mode". If the problem goes away in VGA mode, contact your video card manufacturer (check their website) for updated drivers.
5. It is common for a Windows 3.1 or 3.11 computer system to start Windows from a menu prompt which appears when you boot the computer. This can sometimes cause problems. If you are starting Windows from a menu, try to disable the menuing system and run WIN directly from a DOS prompt. (If you are unsure of how to do this, consult the documentation that came with the menuing system).
6. Make sure you are using the correct mouse driver; don't use a Logitech mouse driver for a Microsoft mouse, for example. Refer to your mouse documentation for details on this.
7. If you're familiar with how EMM386 works, you could try modifying some of its parameters in your CONFIG.SYS file and then rebooting. For example, try adding or deleting the NOEMS parameter or modifying the exclusions. Be careful with this, because if you have EMM386 configured incorrectly, Windows may not start.
8. If your system hangs or crashes when you dial in to your ISP with your modem, there may be a problem with either the modem or with your dialer software. Refer to your modem documentation and check with your ISP to find ways around the problem.
9. On Windows 3.1 or 3.11, use the Notepad application to edit your NETSCAPE.INI file (usually located under either the WINDOWS directory or the NETSCAPE directory). In the [Network] section, change the Use Asynch DNS entry from Yes to No, and set Max Connections to 1. This can often solve crashes due to connection problems in Windows 3.1.
10. On Windows 3.1 or 3.11, quit out of Netscape Navigator and try renaming the NETSCAPE.INI file to something else, such as NETSCAPE.OLD, then run Netscape Navigator again. It will complain that it couldn't find its config file; you can ignore that. If this clears up the problem that you're having, then it was caused by some sort of problem with your original NETSCAPE.INI file; otherwise, quit out of Navigator and rename the config file back to NETSCAPE.INI.

If you are uncomfortable making the changes suggested here, please contact CoreComm's Technical Support for help. If the solutions offered in this document did not resolve the problem, you may need to contact your computer manufacturer, as there may be a hardware problem, or Windows may be malfunctioning. However, please feel free to contact our Technical Support for help or suggestions before doing so.

You can write us email at support@core.com. Please be sure that you give us the software you're using, the modem you're using, and a clear description of the problem. We should be able to get back to you within 24 hours.

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