If the computer is more than a year or so old, the CMOS errors are
indicative of a failed or failing battery. If you feel comfortable opening
the computer case, it's not that difficult to find and replace the battery
which in most cases resembles a large hearing aid type battery, i.e., flat
and about the size of a dime.
--
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
ups.com...
Hi Jim,

I will try your suggestion after I return home from dinner.

The only way I had word and excel was that it was installed when I
purchased my very first computer. I don't think I ever received a CD
for that. Actually, those two programs may have been installed again by
PC Warehouse when I got my second computer... I did not have to pay a
bundle for the CD. Sure wish I had one now!

I don't recall copying either executable and moving them myself (when I
got the second computer). But I may have.

Anyway, I don't recall seeing the Outlook shortcut on my desktop until
recently - and I can tell you that I used Word several times last week.
So ... who knows what happened there!

The one thing I did notice was that when I use Add/Remove programs it
is kind of a useless operation if the Outlook Express version you have
is corrupted. I went offline and was able to remove Outlook Express and
then re-install it - so the re-installed version must just be the
original version stored on my hard drive.
What I did try to do was uninstall Outlook Express and then go on-line
and reinstall Internet Explorer, SP2 - but that seemed to cause worse
problems.
At that point I was not even able to create and send messages! But that
might have been because I removed the appropriate addess book before
doing the uninstall.

I had to do a System Restore to yesterday to get back to where I now
am. I can now use Excel, but not Word. I can send/receive messages -
but I cannot access the addess book. Back to ground zero.

But still - the major problem is what happens when I shut down the
computer and remove power. All of that weird CMOS stuff comes up when I
reboot and my date is set back to 2002!
I didn't realize they still used batteries to save critical information
and I am shocked that I've had two such incidents so soon after they
installed the new CD-ROM burner, etc.
I mean - what can kill a battery so quickly?

Thanks for all of your time and suggestions.

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