We'll create fresh WordPress site with Keep Emoticons as Text installed. You have 20 minutes to test the plugin after that site we'll be deleted.
As of the release of 4.3, WordPress removed the “Formatting” section from the Writing settings. Included in there was the option to turn off WordPress’s default action to convert text emoticons to image smilies. This plugin does the same thing as unchecking the “convert to smilies” box that used to be available via the settings.