2nd browser window won’t open from link.

I have client with a problem.
He has Win98 and IE 6.0
He can browse with IE just fine normally. When a link is supposed to open a
2nd window instead of change the current window it does. When it does though
nothing appears in the browser area. The address is in the address bar. If
he presses STOP then REFRESH the page loads fine. It sounds like a JAVA
error to me. He has ALREADY talked to Microsoft and to Gateway (The
manufacturer of the computer) and they have never heard of it.

He HAS already install the latest JAVA SDK 4.0. This did NOT help. We have tried repairing IE, going to the default security settings.

Anyone ever hear of this problem and know how to fix it?