locking up

Try Opening Q but do not open the data file. Then you can try: File > File Operations > Validate.

Actually you can validate the file you have open; and since it is always advisable to backup a file before validating it, validating the currently open file poses no additional risk if you have followed recommended procedures.

Trying a backup that runs may be your last resort before starting over. I had unrecoverable file corruption with earlier versions of Quicken (don't remember which ones), but never had any file corruption with Q05.

If you have a working backup, you might want to upgrade to Q05 (reasonable prices on eBay).

After the "uninstall", did you remove all folders/files with Quicken in their name? Remove all Quicken entries from your Windows registry? Did you reinstall to a new folder from the previous install? Those are all generic suggestions for re-installations, not necessarily related to your problem.

Whenever you have problems with investment accounts, you probably should test for price history file corruption (not usually caught by validate). Rename QDATA.QPH (where QDATA is the name of your Quicken data). Quicken will rebuild the file with no prices as soon as you next start Quicken. You can reacquire the prices via Historical Price downloads in Quicken, .csv file downloads from Yahoo (or others) and a price import, or manually re-enter.