Messenger not working

paddypaws101

Please excuse me as I am totally un-technical!
My messenger thing wont work....when I click to sign in it does not connect a lot of the time, even when it does it signs out again.
Also....even when it does sign in, for some bizarre reason it no longer links to my Hotmail inbox...the icon does not show on the page. If I click on 'go to my email inbox' manually, it takes me to outlook express ( I think?? ) which does not work on my laptop.
Can I somehow remove the program and start again?

Browntoa

make sure you have the latest version (messenger is now part of this)

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials?os=other

Browntoa

if not then try downloading an earlier version

http://www.oldversion.com/MSN_Messenger.html

say version 7 , make sure it works and then upgrade to the latest one again

paddypaws101

Do I have to uninstall whatever version I currently have then?

Browntoa

no , just intall over the existing