i remember when i first found some friends, i could type a couple letters and a drop down bar would appear with all the players with that name beginning. thats the first thing, i can't get that anymore... ...second, IT WON'T EVEN SEARCH/FIND SOMEONE IF I DO SPELL THEIR ENTIRE NAME AND HIT SEARCH. please help and if you know why this is happening, or if it happens to you as well, please post.

Capitalization matters. Make sure you capitalized there name in the correct way.

Yes, true that ^ it works fine with me and if you cant use player finder, use:

ingame: /search 'insert user here'