Yahoo! Messenger Games don't work

[francisc1701]

Hi there!

I installed the "recommended" version of sun java - their site says it's installed. I have Yahoo! Messenger 8.1.0.421. When I invite someone to play a game and they accept the invitation instead of the game only an image placeholder icon appears (a red X).

I use K-Meleon 1.5.0 as my default web browser and java works fine there.

Some people (supposedly IT specialists) told me that getting Yahoo! Games to work on laptops can be tricky, and they suggested that I uninstall and reinstall Yahoo! Messenger until the games finally work. This however doesn't seem like a proper solution to the problem.

So what should I do ?

[MCT]

the red x imo is a java problem, try using internet explorer with low settings just to test it & if it works, u know its a setting in your browsers have settings

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

I installed the "recommended" version of sun java - their site says it's installed. I have Yahoo! Messenger 8.1.0.421. When I invite someone to play a game and they accept the invitation instead of the game only an image placeholder icon appears (a red X).

I use K-Meleon 1.5.0 as my default web browser and java works fine there.

Some people (supposedly IT specialists) told me that getting Yahoo! Games to work on laptops can be tricky, and they suggested that I uninstall and reinstall Yahoo! Messenger until the games finally work. This however doesn't seem like a proper solution to the problem.

So what should I do ?

I do not currently use Yahoo Messenger myself, but have lots of clients that do. Several ideas ...

After you get the current JRE installed and working (in my case JRE_1_6_0), sometimes, probably always, the previous version sticks around. Perhaps you need to look into a conflicting version. Search the entire HDD for JAVA.EXE and JAVA.DLL for clues. Double-check your registry for references to other versions than the one you are using.

To check that your Java is indeed up to snuff visit some sites that have Java apps and games in both MSIE and Firefox/K-Meleon and look for differences. I would also suggest installing Opera a double-check: visit same sites in both Opera and MSIE and look for differences. It seems possible to me that there is some PITA killbit for Java from MSIE that affects Yahoo Messenger but not Opera or Mozilla (can you say Sun lawsuit?).

Another possibility is to try another version of Yahoo Messenger. I recently had to try several older versions for a picky customer. We settled upon 7.5 because it seemed smoother. Not to say that this will solve your problem because I don't think that this person used any Java games anyway. Since Yahoo didn't keep previous versions hanging around, I looked for and eventually found two excellent repositories for Yahoo Messenger: YAHELP and OldVersions. It may simply be that the new version of Yahoo you are using is buggy and going back to 8.1.0.415 or 8.0.0.716 might help.

Whatever you do, please report back with the solution since so many people are using this IM program these days.

[Tarun]

JavaRa can help if it's Java related.

[francisc1701]

I checked if Java worked in IE and, to my surprise, it didn't. The same red X appeared instead of the Java applet. I unistalled and reinstalled Java, and now it works in IE. However, when someone accepts my invitation to play a game, Yahoo! Messenger crashes with a error message saying something like "the instruction at [...] referenced [...]. The memory could not be 'written'." It doesn't even get to showing that red X.

By the way, I tried Yahoo! Messenger version 8.0.0.508 and the problem is exactly the same.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

I checked if Java worked in IE and, to my surprise, it didn't. The same red X appeared instead of the Java applet. I unistalled and reinstalled Java, and now it works in IE. However, when someone accepts my invitation to play a game, Yahoo! Messenger crashes with a error message saying something like "the instruction at [...] referenced [...]. The memory could not be 'written'." It doesn't even get to showing that red X.

By the way, I tried Yahoo! Messenger version 8.0.0.508 and the problem is exactly the same.

I would take those exact error messages to Yahoo and get them to answer since there is no way that you are the 1st person with this problem. It would be nice if Microsoft would answer you, but, ah never mind.

To really dig in to this problem I would test your version of Yahoo Messenger on a freshly installed WinXP SP3. Then, I would install the latest MSIE plus patches and test it again. Then I would install the latest JRE and test it again. This procedure would rule out some legacy setting that still exists in the registry today from years past.

At the end of this I might know where the problem lies. If I had to guess now I would say that the Java installation is not 100% and I would be looking for alternate versions to install and test.

You may want to spend some time in Google also, because I still see nothing to disuade me that some obscure MSIE registry killbit has been set. Remember that it was not long ago that Microsoft's Java VM was installed by default and it was a time of general chaos for utilizing Java on Windows.

Sorry I cannot be more helpful. Just do not give up, this is fixable. Whatever you do, please share the solution when you find it!

[francisc1701]

The problem was "Microsoft VM for Java".

Remember that it was not long ago that Microsoft's Java VM was installed by default and it was a time of general chaos for utilizing Java on Windows.

So XP Pro SP3 doesn't come with that VM installed by default? Then some other program installed it, because it was listed in "Add or remove programs".

Once I unistalled that and Sun Java and reinstalled Sun Java the games work fine in Yahoo! Messenger.

Thanks everyone!

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

The problem was "Microsoft VM for Java".

Remember that it was not long ago that Microsoft's Java VM was installed by default and it was a time of general chaos for utilizing Java on Windows.

So XP Pro SP3 doesn't come with that VM installed by default? Then some other program installed it, because it was listed in "Add or remove programs".

Once I unistalled that and Sun Java and reinstalled Sun Java the games work fine in Yahoo! Messenger.

Thanks everyone!

Congratulations, and Kudos for writing back with the answer. Thanks.

Just to clarify what I tried to say there: "... Microsoft's Java VM was installed by default ..." (sorry I wasn't clear). What happened back in 2001 was that it would be installed after being prompted by 3rd party apps that relied on Java and complained about it not being found on the system. What I meant by default was that your system didn't try to log on to the Sun website (naturally!) and defaulted to Windows Update (until the lawsuit of course). Things got real icky with SP1 (broke Java for apps that needed Sun JRE). SP1a tried to correct it for good. What a mess. If your computer had SP1 applied, you could have picked up JVM right there. Or another possibility ...

AOL 9.0 was a wicked example of a 3rd party application that not only could install Microsoft's Java VM from prompting the user to get it online, but it even used to add it to their AOL distribution CDROMs and could install it when AOL was setup. There could be any number of 3rd party apps that do this as well.