MSN Messenger Problems

Okay, I've tried and tried, searched and searched, browsed and browsed; (well you get the picture) to no avail; I'm using Windows XP Home Edition if that matters.

My MSN Messenger starts up fine, gets to the log-in screen, but when I try to sign-in, it tells me that there is a problem with Windows Live Communications Platform and needs to close; asking me whether or not I want to send an error report. The Client doesn't close, but it just stops signing in.

If I'm correct, the windows live communications platform is the conference calling feature, and I've tried multiple things to try and fix it. I've tried fixing, I've tried re-installing, I've tried deleting several files and forcing a repair, as well as deleting only a select few .DLL files (suggested by some sites) and nothing seems to work! Another site said my hosts file could be corrupted and my computer infected with malware/spyware etc... but I've looked through the file and have not found what they're suggesting, ran scans and everything, but again, to no avail

Any help would be appreciated in getting this solved as I haven't spoken to some of my friends in 2 or 3 weeks :/

Even if the best solution is to just totally uninstall and get the previous version of messenger I'm happy with that, but I don't usually like downgrading.

Edit:
Windows Live Messenger
Version 2009 (Build 14.0.8064.206)

Force a complete uninstall, then reinstall. Reboot after the clean/uninstall, then download latest version.

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/...009/#more-3641

Okay, I've uninstalled and rebooted, downloading the latest version now; hopefully this will work!

Edit: And... it didn't work :S

Firewall blocking anything that is attemping to use the connection required by windows live/messenger/conference calling feature?

Tried turning it off, didn't help.

Any other suggestions?

Edit: I used both programs in tandem now, rebooted and reinstalled, tried logging in but got a:

"Signing in to Windows Live Messenger failed because the service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."

Error code: 8007007e

Randomly MSN doesn't sign in for me stating the same error message..but i just keep annoying it and around the third try it usually works.

You just need to wait its their problem not yours

There is an easy fix for this, ive done this on several machines myself and my fellow clan mates computers.

Step 1: Uninstall all windows live stuff
Step 2: Restart the computer
Step 3: Download and install CCleaner. During the install there is a page with tons of check boxes, be sure to uncheck all but the put icon on desktop.
Step 4: Open CCleaner, click the analyze button, then once it finds everything, click the run cleaner button.
Step 5: Click on the registry tab in ccleaner, then click scan for issues, then fix all issues. (you can use the ccleaner feature to backup the registry if you so wish).
Step 6: Close CCleaner
Step 7: You can now install MSN again and have it work.

I prefer going to microsoft.com and using their download center to get messenger than from other sites.

These steps fix the issue because the windows live uninstaller misses alot of crap that borks up any new install of the windows live software. MS really needs to make a proper uninstaller for their windows live stuff since so many people have this problem, and it is all do to improperly uninstalling the old version of messenger before it installs the new one in the update process.

Hope this helps those of you that are frustrated to no end.

Didn't work, thanks for trying though, still getting the windows live communications platform error followed by error code: 800706be

Have you tried not installing the new msn but the 8.1 version instead?

If doing what i suggested didnt work, then something else is blocking it, either firewall on compy, messed up hosts file, firewall in router or modem.

You could always run a IM multi client like Pidgin or Trillian, and talk to your msn buddies that way. Still MS needs to figure out the issue and fix it cause this keeps popping up. What i said in my previous post usually works, if it doesnt, then you have a real woolly bugger of a problem. If you have system restore enabled, you might still be able to restore your compy back to before you installed the msn update and fix it that way.

I disabled system restore because of that highly infectious worm thing a while back, any way to figure out how to see which firewall is blocking it and how to unblock it?

Highly infectious worm? Firewalls won't show you what they individually block or not... You should probably turn system restore back on or make points manually. Or do you mean the firewall in relation to MSN Messenger? There should be a icon in your tray and you can probably right click that options/programs then find the exe for Messenger.

~The worm before that traveled via. the root of USBs and spread through commercial networks. I'll turn it back on now
~MSN has a built-in fire-wall?
~Didn't understand the bolded part.

What firewalls if any are you running?

Well I have Spybot Search & Destroy, not sure if it has a built-in firewall, but I have eSet NOD32 (pretty sure it doesn't work anymore though). Then there's the standard windows firewall which, when i turned off, gave me the same error message when i tried logging into msn.

Spybot may be blocking the proccess required by messenger, if you have teatimer or whatever running....

Teatimer's not running.

Well, for now I just substituted using MSN Messenger with Trillian. I guess I'll try again when the next update comes out.

You should get a real firewall like Comodo or Online Armor (though Agntium Outpost is the best on EVER though not free). What I meant was that if you had a firewall installed you could right click it then look for MSN Messenger's EXE and see how your firewall treats it (rules/allowed/blocked/etc). AVG 8.5 is an okay anti-virus, I heard it was on par with McAfee (I don't like McAfee though)... NOD32 will continue to work just you won't have the latest definitions.