lida - 12:10 am on Oct 22, 2012 (gmt 0)

Solved this problem, in a way, though it defies the normal logic of coding...

first off, the ico images were in a wrong format, though they were ico files somehow they had not been converted right (when opened in preview, they showed as multiple images instead of just one -- maybe intended for cross browser support?). I had gotten one of these images from the internet and one I converted online...so they were wrongly formatted.

secondly, they only work if they are specifically NOT named favicon.ico! very strange...any other file name.ico works...

Hope to be of help to someone with the same problem in the future!