# Has anyone upgraded to AOL 6.0? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 1, 2000, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184 "2000-11-01T03:47:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/1 "2000-11-01T03:47:37Z")
I tried downloading it last night, and my computer suffered the “black screen of death.” Nothing worked. Not even Cntrl-Alt-Delete. It would even let me turn it off. I finally held the Off switch for about 10 seconds and it shut down. Then, when I turned it back on and ran ScanDisk, it took about an hour, and ScanDisk kept crashing. Has it worked for anyone else? Comments? ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/2 "2000-11-01T03:48:40Z")
Correction: It _wouldn’t_ even let me turn it off. ---
**Author:** ![absoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@absoul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/absoul)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/3 "2000-11-01T03:50:04Z")
Get rid of AOL. If nothing else use a free service - they are faster and free. ---
**Author:** ![GraceTX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c4cdca/32.png) [@GraceTX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GraceTX)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/4 "2000-11-01T03:53:01Z")
I started to download it the other night but I wanted to play cards and it was slowing down my system so I cancelled it. I’ll probably try doing it again tonight. I’ll just leave it downloading when I go to bed. ---
**Author:** ![maidenunicorn41](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@maidenunicorn41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maidenunicorn41)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/5 "2000-11-01T05:30:50Z")
I have downloaded AOL 6.0 and so far have had no problems. In fact I get connected to the internet faster. so far I am really happy with it. We have had it about 2 wks now. I like the look of the new welcome page. ---
**Author:** ![OrcaChow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e47c2d/32.png) [@OrcaChow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OrcaChow)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/6 "2000-11-01T05:53:29Z")
I changed over last week. SLOOOOOW download, smooth installation, clean transfer of existing settings. Reading email is a lot slower now, and web access is pokey; I get a lot more timeouts than before. It doesn’t add a lot of functionality; IMO, it’s largely cosmetic. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/7 "2000-11-01T13:57:19Z")
Downloaded w/ my DSL service. No problems yet. ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2000, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/8 "2000-11-01T14:02:52Z")
I never bothered upgrading to 5.0, and that hasn’t been out all _that_ long. Am I missing anything? ---
**Author:** ![GraceTX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c4cdca/32.png) [@GraceTX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GraceTX)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/9 "2000-11-05T02:47:18Z")
Downside to upgrading to AOL 6.0…I can no longer see the rate I’m connecting. With 5.0 I could see the connecting baud rate and now that’s gone. I wonder how I can check that now. ---
**Author:** ![Bluemonchichi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Bluemonchichi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bluemonchichi)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/10 "2000-11-05T02:56:14Z")
I have upgraded to 6.0 and like it a lot. I like being able to separate my mail, and see the time next to my IMs. 🙂 I am very happy with it. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/11 "2000-11-05T03:40:38Z")
I liked 5 better. ---
**Author:** ![SouprChckn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f9b8f/32.png) [@SouprChckn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SouprChckn)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/12 "2000-11-05T04:39:01Z")
I’m not sure if you can do it in AOL 6.0 but in 5.0, if I didn’t catch my baud rate in the beginning I would do this. Find a file to download, be it from an e-mail attachment or a file you download from AOL itself and look at what baud rate is listed there. AOL creates an estimate of download time and right next to it, it shows your current baud rate. Its more work than I feel is worth it so if it seems pokey, I try for new connection, if it seems quick, I stick with it. Initial baud rate doesn’t necessarily reflect what baud rate you will have during your connection either, it could be lower or higher. ---
**Author:** ![Eo\_Echo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ebca7d/32.png) [@Eo\_Echo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eo_Echo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/13 "2000-11-05T08:14:42Z")
I had an experience like Rysdad. I downloaded and installed it, and tried it. So far so good. I shut my computer down. The next day I turned it on and found that I couldn’t acess my C drive. Couldn’t even run windows. Couldn’t do a single goddamned thing. I don’t know how, but I somehow managed to fix it and went back to version 5.0. ---
**Author:** ![Justme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@Justme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justme)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/14 "2000-11-05T15:31:52Z")
I tried downloading it, and got to watch TV for over an hour as AOL poked it’s way along, dumped me off-line like it does about 4 times a day and when I signed on again, it picked up where it left off automatically. I liked that. Once it loaded up fully, I had to track down where it went because it never said where it was going. Then I kept getting some WinExec 2 error message at the install. The thing would start to load, flash the message, I’d clear it, it would try again and then just sit there, making you think it was loading but doing nothing. I never did find any WinExec 2 on my system, so I dumped 6.0, went online and checked the website to find that others were showing the same problem. I contacted AOL, ran a ScanDisk, and hopped back on to get a complicated reply about what I needed to check, to possibly correct, and got more confused. So I solved the matter by keeping 5.0. I’ll wait until they work more of the bugs out. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/15 "2000-11-05T15:38:44Z")
Right now everyone is downloading 6.0, so its going to be a slow download… Aren’t you supposed to uninstall version 5.0 first? Seems to me that would be much more stable. Also, an install probably won’t take out your email records. ---
**Author:** ![Nymysys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f6c823/32.png) [@Nymysys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nymysys)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/16 "2000-11-05T15:46:56Z")
I downloaded it a couple of days ago. No issues at all here. My connection seems to be faster, too. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/17 "2000-11-05T16:59:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handy \* > \*\*Right now everyone is downloading 6.0, so its going to be a slow download… > > Aren’t you supposed to uninstall version 5.0 first? Seems to me that would be much more stable. Also, an install probably won’t take out your email records. \*\* No, it installs in a completely different directory. They even recommend keeping 5 “just in case”. I liked the restartable feature too. If not for that, I wouldn’t have got it. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/18 "2000-11-05T19:16:12Z")
I’m going to do what I did when I upgraded from 4.0 to 5.0: wait for one of the gazillion free discs that are sure to pop up soon. ---
**Author:** ![Silo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Silo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/19 "2000-11-05T21:02:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr. Blue Sky \* > \*\*I’m going to do what I did when I upgraded from 4.0 to 5.0: wait for one of the gazillion free discs that are sure to pop up soon. \*\* Me too. ---
**Author:** ![kinoons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a698b9/32.png) [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2000, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184/20 "2000-11-05T22:41:50Z")
from what I’ve seen doing tech support for company x is that AOL 6.0 is horking some systems, no more than usual for a version upgrade – take your number, stand in line, and be ready for that kick in the groin if it dosent work. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-upgraded-to-aol-6-0/39184.md?page=2)