i also had the same problem with my profile pic at the start. it showed me a little symbol of a piece of paper ripped in half where the picture should originally be.
here's a lil thing Feareh made to help people get their profile pictures perfect. it helped me when i didn't know what to do, so it should most likely also work for you.
find the tutorial
here
(http://www.feral-heart.com/index.php?option=com_jfusion&Itemid=2&jfile=index.php&topic=38448.0)