 
Windows Error Messages
Installation
"A device attached to the system is not functioning."
The installation file is damaged or incomplete. You need to download it again.
"Corrupt installation detected"
The installation file is damaged or incomplete. You need to download it again.
"Error #13"
The installation file is damaged or incomplete. You need to download it again.
"Extract failed"
The installation file is damaged or incomplete. You need to download it again.
"Not a valid Win32 application"
The installation file is damaged or incomplete. You need to download it again.
"The file expects a newer version of Windows."
The installation file is damaged or incomplete. You need to download it again.
"This install has detected that you already have an instance of this application running."
A copy of AIM that was previously installed on your computer is already running. You can exit from the running copy of AIM by clicking on the "yellow man" icon in your Windows system tray (the small area at the far right of your Windows taskbar, next to the clock), and choosing the "Exit" option.
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Connection
"Bad reservation status"
This is most likely a temporary problem with the AIM host computers. If you continue to have the problem, please let us know by filing a bug report.
"Connection lost. Check your Internet connection."
Click here
"Invalid DB link"
This is most likely a temporary problem with the AIM host computers. If you continue to have the problem, please let us know by filing a bug report.
"Invalid DB status"
This is most likely a temporary problem with the AIM host computers. If you continue to have the problem, please let us know by filing a bug report.
"Rate limiting occured during sign on. Try again later."
There is a limit to how many times in a short period you can sign on from the same computer with the same screen name. This limit is made more strict when your warning level is higher. Wait an hour or so, and then try to sign on again.
"The AIM service can't be reached."
This is most likely a temporary problem with the AIM host computers. If you continue to have the problem, please let us know by filing a bug report.
"The AOL Instant Messenger service is temporarily unavailable."
This is most likely a temporary problem with the AIM host computers. If you continue to have the problem, please let us know by filing a bug report.
"The session has terminated because you signed on with this screen name at another location."
Somebody has signed on using your screen name on another computer. If you think that your password has been compromised, you should immediately sign back on and change your password (File menu on Windows; People menu on Mac). If your password has been changed by another user, you can get the new password mailed to you. If your AIM screen name is the same as your AOL screen name, then you can change your AIM password on AOL at keyword: AIMPASSWORD.
"There have been too many recent signons from your site. Please try again later."
There is a limit to how many times in a short period you can sign on from the same computer. If multiple people on your network are running into this problem, without signing on repeatedly from the same computer, please let us know by filing a bug report.
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Instant Messages
"A message has been received with characters that cannot be displayed with this system's fonts, and instead are displayed with an empty rectangle."
When two AIM users have different operating systems (such as one user having Mac and one user having Windows, or one user having English Windows and another user having Japanese Windows), some of the characters used by one user's operating system may not be understood by the other user's operating system. Since the operating system itself doesn't have any way to show the particular character, then neither will AIM, so AIM will just display an empty rectangle character to signify that something was actually sent.
"AOL Instant Messenger cannot send this message because you have blocked the recipient. You can change this setting on the Controls tab of the Preferences dialog."
You have previously added the other user to your "Block List," which prevents either of you from communicating via Instant Messages and also prevents either of you from seeing whether the other user is online. To be able to communicated with the other user, go into AIM preferences, click on the Controls tab, and then remove the user from your Block List.
"The last message was not sent because you are over the rate limit."
AIM limits the amount of text you can send in a certain period of time, to prevent users from being disruptive in chat and IMs. You just need to wait a few seconds until the "rate" meter at the bottom-right of your chat or IM window is out of the red zone.
"The message is too long. The limit is # characters. You have entered # characters (including any needed markup)."
When you add a lot of formatting changes to your text, it makes the "behind the scenes" message length much larger. So the same amount of written text which is able to be sent as plain text might not be able to be sent if you have added a lot of text formatting (bold, underline, italic, colors, etc...).
"User is not available."
The user is either offline, or has blocked you, or you are blocking all users (in the Controls tab of your AIM preferences).
"You already have an Instant Message window open with this buddy; you must use that window."
You can only have one IM window open with another user.
"Your buddy is using an AOL client (most likely Mac AOL v2.5) that cannot receive messages from AOL Instant Messenger."
The older versions of AOL are not able to communicate with AIM. You should tell the AOL user to get the free upgrade of AOL at keyword UPGRADE.
"What port should I configure my firewall for in order to use IM Images?"
IM Images uses port 4443.
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Chat
"Buddy Chat invitations can not be sent to the following people because they are signed on through AOL."
AIM and AOL users cannot currently chat with each other unless both users are signed on with AIM. If your buddy is using AOL or CompuServe, then he must also install and sign onto AIM in order to chat with you or other AIM users.
"'s" software does not support Chat. As a result, this buddy can not accept your Chat room invitation."
If your buddy is using AIM, then it is probably an older version of AIM, and he needs to upgrade to the latest version.
"Sorry, AIM could not join room . Please try again later."
This is most likely a temporary problem with the AIM host computers. If you continue to have the problem, please let us know by filing a bug report.
"Chat Room creation was refused. Please try again later."
This is most likely a temporary problem with the AIM host computers. If you continue to have the problem, please let us know by filing a bug report.
"Chat service is not available."
This is most likely a temporary problem with the AIM host computers. If you continue to have the problem, please let us know by filing a bug report.
"Sorry, Chat is not available at this time."
This is most likely due to a temporary problem with the AIM host computers. If you continue to have the problem, please let us filing a bug report.
"The connection to the Chat Room has been lost."
This is most likely a temporary problem with the AIM host computers. If you continue to have the problem, please let us know by filing a bug report.
"The last message was not sent because you are over the rate limit."
AIM limits the amount of text you can send in a certain period of time, to prevent users from being disruptive in chat and IMs. You just need to wait a few seconds until the "rate" meter at the bottom-right of your chat or IM window is out of the red zone.
"Unable to join the chat room. No response from the Service."
This is most likely a temporary problem with the AIM host computers. If you continue to have the problem, please let us know by filing a bug report.
"You have too many Chat Rooms open to join another one. Please close one of the current Chat Room windows and try again."
There is a limit to how many chat rooms you can have open at once, so you will need to close one of the open chat rooms before you can open a new one.
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Buddy List
"You cannot add another buddy to your Buddy List."
You have reached the limit of how many buddies can be added to your list. As of this writing, the limit is set at 150.
"The same screen name appears more than once in a group. Please correct or delete the highlighted item."
You are trying to add the same buddy more than once in the same group. Choose the Delete option to get rid of one copy of the buddy's name in that group.
"The screen name is too short or contains invalid characters and cannot be added."
Screen names must be at least two characters long. They must be composed entirely of letters, numbers, and spaces, and they must begin with a letter.
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Profiles and Member Info
"AOL member profiles are not accessible through AOL Instant Messenger."
At this time, AIM and AOL users are not able to view one another's profiles.
"Buddy Info for is not available."
The user is either offline, or has blocked you, or you are blocking the user (in the Controls tab of your AIM preferences).
"We could not file your directory entry. The most likely cause is the server is not available at this time. Please try again later."
This is most likely a temporary problem with the AIM host computers. If you continue to have the problem, please let us know by filing a bug report.
"We could not process your request for a search. The most likely cause is the server is not available at this time. Please try again later."
This is most likely a temporary problem with the AIM host computers. If you continue to have the problem, please let us know by filing a bug report.
"Your directory entry is identical to other existing directory entries. Please enter additional information to make your directory entry unique."
In some cases when the profile you are trying to create is identical to the profiles of other users, you need to modify yours in some way to make it unique.
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Invitations
"<Screen name> is away right now and will not be able to accept your invitation until he or she returns."
Your invitation was sent to your Buddy. This message is just informing you that your Buddy has set himself as Away, so that you don't expect him to immediately reply to your invitation.
"Cannot send invitation to yourself."
Some AIM features, such as chat and IMs, allow you to initiate the feature with just yourself. Others, however, such as File Transfer, must be initiated with another user.
"Your buddy is using an AOL client which cannot receive your invitation."
If your buddy is using AOL or CompuServe, then the AIM feature you are trying to use is not supported by the AOL or CompuServe software. If your buddy is using AIM, then it is probably an older version of AIM, and he needs to upgrade to the latest version.
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Warnings
"Warning of not allowed."
There is a limit to how many times you are allowed to warn another user for each message they send you.
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E-Mail Address Updates
"Change pending"
You will need to wait (possibly up to 72 hours) for the current update attempt to finish.
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News Ticker and Stock Ticker
"Error loading ticker file"
This will occur if you are using Instant Messenger behind a firewall or proxy server. There is no solution for this problem yet.
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URLs
"This URL contains a space or one of the following characters that is not permitted in an URL: < > [ ] { } \\ ^ `"
When the recipient of your message clicks on the hyperlink, the URL may not be launched by the AIM client if it contains those characters, so you should remove them if they are not absolutely necessary.
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Others
"Internal server error"
This is most likely a temporary problem with the AIM host computers. If you continue to have the problem, please let us know by filing a bug report.
"Ran out of memory for Fonts, Pictures, or Objects; please free up memory and re-run program"
If the problem is happening in a chat or IM window, then closing and reopening the chat or IM window may fix the problem. Otherwise, you will have to restart AIM, or, as a last resort, restart Windows.
"Unable to load the accelerator tables; please free up memory and re-run program"
If you still have the problem after restarting Windows, then one of the AIM program files may have been damaged. Try reinstalling AIM. If that doesn't help then run the AIM uninstaller (or just delete the AIM directory), and then reinstall AIM. If you do run the uninstaller then you will need to retype your screen name on the AIM Sign On screen after reinstalling.
"We cannot process your request for a search."
This usually only occurs with older versions of AIM. Make sure that you download the latest version here. If the problem continues to happen after installing the latest version, please file a bug report so that we are aware of the problem.
When I try to launch AIM, I get the following error message: "Startup.ocm failed due to error 31."
This is due to an outdated version of the file COMCTL32.DLL in your c:\windows\system directory. To correct the problem, take the following steps:
- Go to the following web page
- Download the highest version number available of the "Common Control Library Patch" file. Make sure to get the one that says "x86" next to it.
- Launch the downloaded file and follow the directions. This will probably include restarting Windows. AIM should now work.
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