imap_open refuses to work

i've tried every variation of connection method listed on php.net/imap_open and it just wont work anymore since i ran EasyApache in Cpanel and upgraded from php 4.4.4 to 4.4.8.... what could be causing this? it always worked fine before the php version change. and Cpanel support cant figure out what's wrong.

Hi

Have you checked that imap and imap_open are both enabled on your server configuration?

Do you get an error message?

Ta

the easyapache php settings has Imap checked so yea the imap functions are enabled.
i just get the "Couldn't open stream ....."