do you have a firewall on like zonealarm that is blocking AH from accessing the web but since your already in AH you cant see the message popping up?
if you have zonealarm, like i do, when you start up ah and it locks up, press y for yes to allow zonealarm to allow ah to access the web. might be different if you have a different firewall.
Also try using lower video settings in AH. might be a problem with your vid card trying to swicth to a high resolution.
-AKHog
