My dad's been having this problem for months, and he is also running 5.5, but he has windows98.
I also have 5.5 and I have no probs with it, but I'm running ME, which by the way DOES suck, It doesn't even have a freaking DOS interface!! I'm thinking about just screwing the whole PC thing and getting a Mac, lol. AT least that way I would gave more graphics editing power :p
Maybe just a certain update or addition may have screwed it up.
Then again, my dad's computer won't go to yahoo, hotmail, members.aol.com, microsoft, and various other websites that seem to be picked at random. IT JUST WON'T GO THERE, it doesn't even try to connect. It's weird.....
-Searge