MX2K4 GetURL Problem

Hi all, strange problem I'm having. I've developed a Physics-lab in Flash and at certain points have a button that links to various excel files via the getURL function with the _blank method. However, with the _blank, the excel files will not open immediately in IE6, you must hit the refresh button first, then they work fine. The refresh button is not needed in firefox.

If I use the default _self in getURL it also works fine, but you lose your place in the swf when you hit the back button. I've tried using the getURL(javascript...) method for opening pop-up windows but because the excel files are ordinally named, I need to address them with AS2.0 variables, which the javascript part does not allow (or perhaps I don't know the syntax).

It would be great if the users did not have to hit the refresh button and it would open in a separate browser window... any ideas? Thanks in advance.