Shoutbox

hi, i have had windows live messenger 9 installed on my computer for a few months now and have had no problems whatsoever. However the other day when i tried signing on it took 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes a box popped up saying Windows Live Communications Platform has stopped working. I get two options saying 'check online for a solution and close the program' or just 'close the program'. However whichever of the options i choose it stil doesn't solve my problem. I also have Vista if thats any help? Any help would be hugely appreciated, thanks.