delete your spark folder from your account profile. if in windows it will be either in the root of your profile folder or in the application data folder of your profile or both depending on how many different versions you tried.
now i am a happy camper 
thanks a lot
Sorry I did not provide that obvious fix much earlier. Spark tends to cache things locally like that.
no prob. i knew it had to be there but i wasnt thinking big - chasing files instead of deleting folders - since i have to delete that folder on 20something clients, well, well. but it is up and running now its what counts.
tekuton