Ok, well to get more specific: all the files were .xml files, it was actually euda's remake of insom's hotkey bar. But I had the exact setup that you had described above. I just went back and deleted everything and started from scratch....
The only thing I did differently about this time was instead of saving the eq2.ini file using unicode...i saved it with ansi...this time when i loaded it up it worked...so my only conclusion is that on my machine it HAS to be done using ansi......
Thanks for the replies,
Defik of Befallen
37 Warlock