I have been tracking down spurious locks of my computer, and it seems to be MSN messenger thats doing it, does anyone know of a replacement for MSN messenger that I can use that still has all the options of MSN, i.e. video calls, whilst still remaining in contact with MSN contacts?.

If you can survive without video calls, get Gaim. You may wish to avoid v2 beta5 at the moment and go for the last stable v1, though. However, before v2 final, voice and video will be supported

Cheers, I'll try that, could really do with video though if anyone knows of anything else

My sister had a problem with her msn does the computer crash everytime you try to open it if so virus scan with something like ad-aware if not scan with ad-aware anyway

aMSN does well, it does Video, and lots of MSN's features.

amsn.sourceforge.net

Trillian is an alternative I use, it supports other protocols like AIM/ICQ/YIM/IRC too, or I think Miranda could do the trick too
you can get trillian at http://trillian.cc , the basic version should be enough

Weird, never had any probs with MSN Messenger (Only that live one), but I've used 7.5 since it's been out and it has never faultered on me

If MSN messenger is acting up, try windows messenger. Same thing, less pap. You could also try patching it to remove the stuff you don't want or need, like the adverts: http://apatch.org/

I've tried trillian and gaim in the past and I've ended up back with messenger. I couldn't get the hang of Gaim's UI, and trillian went from free to nagware so I gave up on that.

Tried Miranda? Not a bad app, tbh!

MSN 8 is horrendous. 7.5 is good. I'm like you, got problems and searched around for a replacement. Sadly, nothing comes close as far as I'm concerned.

Yahoo! Messenger allows you to add MSN contacts and do everything that MSN does and more. - bUt I still prefer MSN lol