Hi philipatplay,
I also tried your same things, except edit mysql tables because I don’t have access on it. Also, I have as usual use Chrome to browse admin pages, and Firefox to develop and surf web pages. I reset all them, I tried to use IE and Safari, but I continued with the problem.
Then… I had the daring to beg please to the server administrator to restart the http service and a few hours later …Voila! Now, apparently everything is correct.