Outlook Express: Hotmail not syncing/timeout on 1 machine, fine on 2nd

[Guest_imported]

I have a desktop machine running Win98, and a laptop machine running WinME.

Recently one of my hotmail accounts on the desktop machine stopped working in Outlook Express. When trying to sync up that particular hotmail account, it just sits there and does the little animation of connecting and trying to download, but no progress is made and I eventually have to cancel it.

I removed that account from Outlook and then re-added it, but the same thing happens. This time it tries to get the list of folders from my hotmail account, and just sits there and makes no progress at all. I then tried creating a new hotmail account, added it to the desktop Outlook Express, and it gets the folder list just fine, and syncs up just fine. So the desktop runs ok with other hotmail accounts, it's just for some reason -this- machine doesn't like -that- hotmail account. I think that when I started having troubles, I was trying to delete some messages from my hotmail inbox, and might have also deleted it while online from the web. Outlook was running slow so I logged on via the web and checked mail, deleted junk etc. So maybe somehow then things really got out of sync and those files are still resident on my desktop and whenever I add -that- account, the computer still associates those bad files with that account.

I tried adding the problem account on my laptop Outlook Express. It added fine, downloaded the list of folders just fine, and syncs up just fine. I removed it, readded it, and resynced it again with no troubles.

Why is it that this particular hotmail account just won't work on my desktop machine?

I tried updating both machines... installed all the lastest critical updates, intalled IE6 w/ Outlook Express 6 and I still cannot get the desktop machine to work with that hotmail account. Is some part of my mailbox corrupted on that desktop machine? Is there a way I can fix or repair that? Do I need to save my emails and try to re-install Outlook Express itself?

 

[Guest_imported]

Additional Info:
Just noticed that under the Identies menu, I have 2: "Main Identity" listed.
I created a new identity, switched to it, but was only able to delete 1 of the "Main Identity"s. The other gave some odd error message about it already being in use by some other file or program.

I don't know what else could be using the other Main Identity... things seem to work fine with this new one I created. Perhaps some part of the old identity is tied to some corrupted file, and that's why I was having problems with that particular hotmail account.