Installed Python 2.3.4 on WinXP Pro on Dell Inspiron.  
Command line interpreter works fine, but the IDLE GUI 
will not start.  Only occurs on Dell Inspiron; cannot 
reproduce this on other machines.  McAffee firewall 
software is disabled.  Any ideas?

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More information is needed, what does "will not
start" mean?  Open a command window, cd to
\python23\Lib\idlelib and run
..\..\python .\PyShell.py
Post all error message in command window or
in the IDLE GUI here.  Thanks.

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When clicking the shortcut via the Start menu, the hourglass 
briefly appears but IDLE does not start.  

The WinXP personal firewall is not enabled.  There is McAfee 
security software running, but the same behavior occurs 
when the software is disabled.

When running Idle from the commandline, get the following 
output:

C:\Python23\Lib\idlelib>idle.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Python23\Lib\idlelib\idle.py", line 23, in ?
    idlelib.PyShell.main()
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\PyShell.py", line 1287, in main
    flist.pyshell = PyShell(flist)
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\PyShell.py", line 769, in __init__
    self.interp.start_subprocess()
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\PyShell.py", line 369, in 
start_subprocess
    self.transfer_path()
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\PyShell.py", line 438, in 
transfer_path
    self.runcommand("""if 1:
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\PyShell.py", line 655, in 
runcommand
    self.rpcclt.remotequeue("exec", "runcode", (code,), {})
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\rpc.py", line 214, in remotequeue
    return self.asyncreturn(seq)
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\rpc.py", line 238, in asyncreturn
    response = self.getresponse(seq, wait=0.05)
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\rpc.py", line 278, in getresponse
    response = self._getresponse(myseq, wait)
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\rpc.py", line 298, in _getresponse
    response = self.pollresponse(myseq, wait)
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\rpc.py", line 423, in pollresponse
    message = self.pollmessage(wait)
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\rpc.py", line 375, in pollmessage
    packet = self.pollpacket(wait)
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\rpc.py", line 347, in pollpacket
    if not self.ioready(wait):
  File "C:\Python23\lib\idlelib\rpc.py", line 337, in ioready
    r, w, x = select.select([self.sock.fileno()], [], [], wait)
select.error: (10022, 'An invalid argument was supplied')

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Strange. Although IDLE has been communicating with
its subprocess while registering methods, either the
socket has gone away or it doesn't have a fileno() method.
It always fails at this point?

Try adding the following debug code just before line 337
in rpc.py:
print>>sys.__stderr__, "*** self.sock: ", self.sock
print>>sys.__stderr__, "*** self.sock.fileno(): ", self.sock.fileno()

and post the results here.  Thanks.

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I had similar symptoms on a Win2K box.  There was a problem
with the TCL install - I removed the Ruby-1.6.7 and
Python-2.2.1 installs and the problem has gone away.

Unfortunately I did not capture the error output.

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No further response from OP.  Closing as works-for-me.