Gabe,
As David mentioned, you should be able to run a Repair Permissions
from the Disk Utility app resident on your machine. This usually
works fine unless your unit is not booting. The ichat Prefs are
located in the Users/Library/Preferences under
com.apple.ichat.plist. there are usually a number of them, that is
like aim, jabber and such. I would suggest the Repair Permissions
before going the delete Preferences route. Good luck!
Later...
Tim Kilburn
& Carter the Canine
Fort McMurray, AB Canada
