GIMP: Can't save anything other than XCF or use any plugins...

I just downloaded Portable Gimp 2.2.11 (and I've also had this same problem with the same version of the installed gimp...)

I can create a new file or edit and already existing jpg/png/gif, etc... I save it as an xcf then I try to save it as a jpg or png and the save dialog just stops working. Both the cancel and the "x" don't work. It just sits there like it forgot what it was doing. I don't get any error messages.

I can still do things in the rest of the program (even save it again as an xcf), but the save dialog just hangs out doing nothing. And I can't save anything other than an xcf.

I'm running win2k and memory and CPU are running at normal levels.

After many many google searches, I think I've narrowed down the problem, but I still can't seem to fix it. I think it's a problem with my plugins. No plugins/filters will work either. The plugin (e.g. gauss.exe) shows up in the task mananger. And if I keep trying to use that plugin, it generates multiple instances in the task mananger. When I "end process" one of them, gimp gives me an error message saying that the plugin crashed.

And somewhere, I found that gimp uses plugins to save also. So I think that's problem. One of the suggested fixes was to copy all the DLLs from the bin folder to the lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins folder. I tried that and it didn't work either.

Another fix said something about old DLLs from an older version GTK dll's in the windows system folder interfering. However, I'm running Portable Gimp, so that shouldn't be a problem, right?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.