Thanks all.

I decided to report back that I returned my computer to PC Warehouse.
It took the guy about 4 days to fix all of the problems.
The battery problem (he said) was due to a voltage "problem" on the
mother board ... something that caused the battery to drain almost
immediately.
How on earth this happened, I do not know. As I said from the
beginning, I had a perfectly good computer (with authentic software)
when I took it in to have the new ROM burner/ CD reader installed.

Anyway, he had to start from scratch (again) and reformat my hard drive
and then re-install Windows XP.
In the mean time, I had found my XP "certificate of authenticity" which
had been given to me when I had the computer built (by a place called
PC City) ... instead of putting the thing onto my computer tower case
as they shoud have.
I don't know what the PC Warehouse guy had done originally to make my
computer look as though the software was not authentic... Maybe this
all had to do with losing all of the CMOS data because of the failed
batteries (2) ...?

I also found the Windows Office 1997 (aha!) CD-ROM which I had
purchased with my first computer from Micron. I recall now that instead
of buying new office software, I was able to load Word and Excel (all I
needed) from this CD. I told him that if he wanted to install Office
software to use my CD ... otherwise I would do it.

It seems as though this "repairman" had screwed a few things up along
the way in order to fix problems he had caused. And, he was doing
everything he could (e.g., reformat my hard drive and reinstall Windows
XP) in a slapdash fashion in order to get my computer out the door. He
should have investigated the battery problem FIRST ... and then the
rest of the work would not have been necessary.

All is now well - I haven't had a problem (CMOS) for a few weeks.
Of course, once I got the computer back, I had to reinstall all of my
own software (like TurboTax) ... an exercise I had just gone through a
week or so earlier. That took a good part of the afternoon.

Thanks again.

Bonnie


Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM wrote:
"BAZ" wrote in message
oups.com...
I did exactly what you said. Closed down Outlook Express. Found the
.wab file. Copied it to C:\.
BTW, when I double clicked on the found .wab file I had to specify that
I wanted to use notepad to open the file ... and I could see my
contacts therein.

I then opened the registry and made the modification. I had to specify
modify - then I modified only the data... which now looks like
C:\BONNIE.wab (not .wab~). I then exited the registry editor and
rebooted.

Before opening Outlook Expess, I actually did another regedit and
confirmed that the right address was there.

I finally opened Outlook Express and nothing had changed.

Surprise - I then went back and did another regedit and the entry had
reverted to what was there originally: C:\Documents and
Settings\BONNIE.USER-blahblah\Application Data\Microsoft\Address
Book\BONNIE.wab.
MAGIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You haven't commented about the fact that my Outlook Express Import
file (the address where another .wab file is located were I to execute
the import - which I DID NOT) is another location... the same as the
above .wab address but with Bonnie instead of BONNIE.USER-blahblah
after Documents and Settings.

I am pretty sure my computer guy was trying to save stuff - like my
address book when reloading XP from scratch (to fix the previous
problem).

But - it is the Registry that dictates which address book is used,
right?

I am pretty convinced that it is Outlook Express that is corrupted, not
the address file.

As I said in a previous mail, the Add/Remove program under Control
Panel seems useless because I can uninstall and then re-install Outlook
Express while working off-line. That seems to me that I am just
re-installing the same corrupted version of Outlook Express?!?!?

It seems that the best idea is to uninstall Outlook Express (and
Internet Explorer) and then re-install from the microsoft site.
When I read this article you sent:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;q318378

and then clicked on the XP SP2 install:

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...p/default.mspx

all it seemed to do is check for any updates which I didn't already
have... and these were two updates that I seem to have downloaded
previously. There is no attempt to download Internet Explorer (and
therefore Outlook Express).

When I am trying to do is to simply download Internet Explorer after
removing it (using Add/Remove Programs).

Nothing seems easy.

BAZ





Jim Pickering wrote:
OK, let's try something fairly simple (hopefully). Close Outlook
Express.
Do a file search for any file ending with [ WA* ] w/o the brackets. If
you
find several, double click on each one until you find one that has the
contacts you need and write down it's file location. Then open Windows
Explorer (WinKey+E) and navigate to that location and right click on the
WAB
file and select Copy [to copy it to the clipboard]. Now navigate in
Windows
Explorer to your root drive [ C:\ ] and right click on a blank spot in
the
right hand pane of the Explorer window and select Paste. This will place
a
copy of the desired address book on the root drive.

Now, still with Outlook Express closed, open the registry editor to the
WAB
file path:

\HKEY_CURRENT_USER
\Software
\Microsoft
\WAB
\WAB4
\Wab File Name

and in the right hand pane, clear the existing entry and insert in its
place
"C:\nameoffile.WAB" [substituting in place of nameoffile for the actual
name
of the file you moved]. Exit the registry editor and reboot. Now open
Outlook Express and see if the address book is working correctly.

As for your problem with Word/Office/Outlook, if you have never installed
Microsoft Office, how did you get a copy of Word? Was it installed from
some other application program? If so, you may have to find that older
CD
and run a repair installation, but to get advice concerning that, I'd
suggest posting to whatever newsgroup is appropriate for the program you
installed that gave you Word.

Good luck and let us know the results.
--
Jim Pickering
MVP-Outlook Express/Windows Mail
Please reply to newsgroup only so that others may be helped with your
feedback.

"BAZ" wrote in message
oups.com...
Jim,

I hope I see that I sent you a message... but it is buried above ...
with all of the previous messages beng displayed!

BAZ




It sounds like you are running a security program that prevents changes to
the Registry. What firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware programs are you
using.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Please reply in newsgroup. Do NOT send email.