Mail Crashes

I have an on-going problem with Mail crashing. I do not have Growl installed. I have set up four separate accounts and I suspect the issue might be with Hotmail. It often asks me for my password and even though I re-enter and check the box for the system to remember, it does not seem to make a difference. A crash normally occurs when I start up Mail. It will us me to "connect" two of my accounts, which I do, and then the "spinning wheel" beside each account will normally freeze and the program crashes. Any ideas????