admin options-writing will not update

I started having trouble with smiles so it seemed like this might be a plug-in problem, but I’ve ruled that out. When I got the admin/options/writing page and try to click “use smiles” and hit update is doesn’t actually update athough it says it did. The box stays unchecked and smiles continue to be broken. It won’t all me to input the other stuff on that page like mail server, etc. Ideas?