signing on

Okay I'm sure before when I clicked on the green
Messenger icon on the top bar you could see the signup
process going through, like it would say "signing in".
Now lately, when I click on it, its like I'm signed in
already except that the icon isn't along the task bar at
the bottom. I tried out MSN 5 briefly the other day,
and the signing in process was "normal". I don't have
the start up feature any more in Outlook Express and
Messenger itself is configured to start up when I ask it
too. Why is this?