ICQ Contact list – suddenly all contacts gone?!?

ICQ 2003b build 3916

Just yesterday, everything was sweet and dandy.

Today I log on as usual – Contact List completely empty! Removed ICQ fully and reinstalled, nothing. Installed ICQ Lite, nothing. Installed 2003b #3916 AGAIN, nothing! Rebooted DLLs, nothing. I start up the “DBAdmin.exe”, and, as you probably guess, no-thing.

I really wouldn’t want to install the latest version, as I have cracked this one to stop displaying those annoying banners which get on my nerves.

Now, I think I remember, but I could be wrong, that there was quite a lot of data stored in C:Program FilesICQ2003b. The thing is, I go there now, and I have 3 files:
plugin.cdx (6kb)
plugin.dbf (1kb)
plugin.fpt (1kb)

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t here usually a larger file, named after your ICQ number?

I’ve tried retrieving my personal info from ICQ directory. Sort of worked, it confirmed details I had about myself, but contact list still shows as blank.

So I tried testing out some other functionalities. I entered into search something common, like surname “Smith”, and once it worked, and other time it said “Error: info number 132”. From this link

http://web.icq.com/help/faq/1,,1683,00.html#gs4

I’ve found that one of the explanations could be that the database is down

Q. While searching for new contact I am getting error number 132, what can I do?

– Our database may be down and unreachable temporarily due to servicing or upgrading activity. Try to search again at a later time.

But if the database is down, how come other people tell me that their ICQ is just fine?…

Thanks for any insights