I've tried running virus and spyware scanners and they don't pick up anything, but my computer still refuses to open pages such as AOL, which is stopping my AIM from working. I also tried looking in the "hosts" file in the system folder, which was suggested to me by the computer tech at work, and that turned out to not be the source of the problem. Any other thoughts? I'd like to not have it come to formatting the hard drive and starting from scratch, but it may come to that.

If you are running win xp go to c:windows/system32/drivers/etc and make sure that the host file has the bak extension in that folder. reboot then try again. if it says .bak then rename it so it doesnt have that on there then rename it a second time .bak

you may want to empty your cache and run windows cleanup, its a small free program you can find online. that may get rid of up to 10 gigs of stuff that doesnt need ot be there. also run spysweeper. that helps find things your anti virus doesnt search for.

undate all your internet programs too.

Maybe because your internet settings is blocking your cookies, to dieable this go to internet options and security setting and click default.

i dont open aol.com that much , but have you checked if any java or flash version needs to be installed or upgraded for aol site ?