OE 6 acting up

Recently my OE 'freezes up' until its done checking for mail messages.

I've noticed that AIM pops up on top before it freezes, and

Tools> Options>General Tab 'Automatically sign on to AOL Instant Messenger' has completely disappeared.

i've tried reinstalling IE 6 SP1, but i cant get rid of it.

any ideas short of backing up my mailboxes/accounts and uninstalling/reinstalling OE using my windows XP disk?

 

you could try uninstalling AIM to see if that remedies the problem, then reinstall and see if you get the setting back.