Windows Live Messenger problem

Filthyscent

Howdy good people of the H/A forum!

I'm having some problems with getting my Windows Live Messenger to work properly.

After recently reinstalling my Windows XP and setting them up, I installed WLM too. After typing my username and password in, the program recognised/remembered my screen name, profile picture and status bar text but it failed to upload my contact list claiming I don't have any contacts yet. Moreso, after I tried to manually add contacts to my list I got the "this person doesn't have MSN yet, shall we contact you when they install it?" message which is simply not true, because all of the people I tried to add indeed have active MSN accounts.

I tried to reinstall WLM and even tried importing my contact list from my laptop (where it's working fine) but after getting something like "Import sucessful, you might wait a few seconds before the list updates" message, I still don't have a contact list.

I have no idea what to do. Should I try downloading an older version first? I have the 2009 version, build 14.

Thanks!

Chanus

From what I understand, only the newest version works anymore (this is a new thing with this version), so downloading an older version probably wont help (though you may want to make sure you do have the newest version... and even if you do, I had to uninstall/download/install it four or five times before it would work... yay Microsoft)

Your contacts are supposed to be tied to your Live account, so it should refresh automatically... don't really know what to tell you other than that =/

Does it actually let you add contacts?

Filthyscent

They still are from what I understand, I can see my contact list update when I log onto my hotmail account for example.

A buddy of mine suggested that I should try logging onto www.meebo.com and check to see if the contact list shows there, and it does.

I have never had any problems with automatically adding contacts even though I had installed WLM on several different computers so far, just this one.

A long shot here, but is it possible this has something to do with some of my drivers not installing properly when I reinstalled Windows? Every time I start Windows they try to install "VIA bus master IDE driver", even after I repetedly installed the correct driver from the internet.

Sorry if these questions sound stupid, I'm terrible with computers.

DekuStick

If you have a 64bit Windows XP WLM will not work on it. You have to do a work around to get it to work properly. But because you've installed it I would say the problem lies elsewhere.

Have you made sure to check the security options?

Also check the connection in settings and see if you have a good connection to the .NET Messenger Service.

Filthyscent

I've just uninstalled my BitDefender antivirus program and I don't have any other similar programs nor firewalls but problem persists.

I followed your advice and checked the connection to .NET messenger service but the program claims it's working fine and that I'm connected to WLM service.

Also, I tried logging onto same MSN account via the pre-installed (vanilla) Windows Messenger which came with my Windows and the contact list automatically imported without a problem.

Richard M. Nixon

If you don't use the fancy drawing and voice/video chat, may I suggest trying pidgin. It's a multi-client IM program that'll handle MSN, Yahoo, AIM and Gtalk amongst others. I've always been really happy with it. It's not as pretty as WLM but it will generally allow you to send IMs to friends and to receive them, which is sort of the point.