OE incoming mail server resets itself after reboot

I've had an unusual thing happen on my Outlook Express for some time now. Any time I restart the computer or turn it off and then back on, OE will change the settings on my incoming mail server. I go in and change it every time, but it reverts back to the same thing after any restart or shut down. I have two email accounts on there and it does it to both accounts. What causes this and is there any way to keep it from doing this? It gets annoying after a while.

 

This smells like a possible malware problem. What protections (virus, spyware, firewall) are you using?

 

I use McAfee. My computer had a virus two years ago and it corrupted the boot sector. I had the OS reinstalled. My ISP found out about the virus and had me to send all email through another server in case I was still infected. That lasted for a year. Once the year was up, the server address is now what pops up in the incoming mail server instead of the outgoing mail server.

 

And, then OE won't receive mail? Is that right?

Does this happen merely by re-opening OE, without trying to retrieve mail?

When you originally setup your email account for you ISP email account, did you do that manually, or did they provide some software to set it up for you?

 

It only does this when the computer has been turned off and back on or restarted. It will not receive email unless I go into both accounts and change the address for the incoming mail server. Once I do that, I can receive mail until the computer has been turned off or restarted.

 

You could delete both accounts in OE and the re-create them. Have you asked your ISP about this problem?

 

I have deleted the accounts and it does the same thing. My wife's email account is in her own identity and hers does not do that. I have considered creating an all new identity, importing all my messages into that indentity, and see if that solves the issue.

 

I think that is a good idea. If you try it, please post back with the results.

If you want to try something else first, download CCleaner and run its Windows scan and its Registry scan. Remove everything it finds from the Windows scan. When running the Registry scan, it will prompt you to backup your registry before the actual scan. Do the backup, as prompted, and the complete the scan and tell CCleaner to Fix all items found. I suggest you have OE closed when doing this.

 

Looks like the creating a new identity has worked. I have imported all my mail and have restarted the computer several times and the incoming mail server stays as it is. Should have thought of this a year earlier.

 

Great! Glad to hear it's working. The old Identity must have been corrupt in some way.