Ichat will not work

Question

So here's my problem: When I open iChat it automatically opens up an empty chat. In the bottom right corner it says "Rejoin Chat" even though there's no chat for me to "rejoin". When I try to start a new chat, and I type in a message it sends but it doesn't show up (In other words, I still see my icon and the "..." even after I've sent the message). Also, If someone IMs me back, I do not see the message. So far I've tried changing the port to different things, restarting my computer, and deleting my screen name from iChat and re-adding it; all to no avail. By the way, I have iChat 4.0.5. I'm not sure if that's iChat AV or not, it's just the one that's bundled with leopard. I wasn't sure where else to ask this question, though.
Any ideas on how to fix it? I'd like to do a delete and re-install, but where can I find iChat software? I couldn't find the download for it on apple.com, and I don't have an external hard drive.
Message was edited by: thinkred

Answer 1

First try deleting this plist.
Go to Users/(your account)/Library/Preferences and delete com.apple.ichat.plist.
Restart iChat.
And to reinstall.
Put in your install disk 1(the disk that came with your mac) then after the disk has opened double click on "Optional installs" then double click on the "Optional installs.mpkg".
Then when you get to "Custom install......." click on the triangle by appications and then tick iChat and then continue with the install.
When done download and install the 10.5.4.combo to bring iChat back up to date.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosx_updates/macosx1055comboupdate .html