Forgot that I also downloaded the latest version of OpenGL and installed it over the old.  So it might have also been that.  I wouldn't mention it but if someone else has the same problem at some point in the future it may be worth updating.

I know it was either that that fixed it or uninstalling crystal and cel

Thanks again bilbous for you help.

p.s.  the 5.1 install was a check to make sure that the problem was not caused by the 5.8 version which I deleted before trying the 5.1 install.  Had I been able to load and use the GUI on the updater after installing 5.1 I would have known that my problem originated in a conflict between my computer and the latest version.  However as that did not resolve the problem I must conclude that the root cause is not with the client.

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my query.

All my graphics settings have been on the lowest setting, and yes my graphics are a little laggy with this game and a few other games.  But it has been working.  And for the time being I am stuck with my obsolete graphics card and processor (AMD Athalon II).  However I think I can now rule out both of them and also the latest updates as the cause because I uninstalled the newest version and installed version 5.1; yet the problem persists. 

I am wondering if the checkdisk or defrag moved a file that is needed to run the game.

I saw openAl is now included so I will now check to see if I can locate the old OpenAl fix, maybe the checkdisk thought it was an orphan file or something like that.

If that doesn't work I will try to re-install celstart and crystal space.

I will post the results when I have them.

The game was working yesterday.  Now both the launcher and the client are showing all black screen for the background and interface.  It is probably worth mentioning that I do have a cursor which does look as it should and if I click on the bottom right part of the updater box where the play option should be it does switch to the client screen ..only black; so the links are only invisible.

  Today I got up defraged my drive, shut down my comp to run a scan disk, defraged again.  And tried to run the game which server had disconnected overnight while I was asleep (a new update?).

I have uninstalled and re-installed and in the process acquired an external repair tool...ie updater.  Which I ran and it said I was missing several art files which have since been downloaded.  I had then verified all the files were correct but when I tried to run the game I got the following error log.

Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, <..\..\src\common\paws\pawsmainwidget.cpp:47 pawsMainWidget::pawsMainWidget SEVERE>
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, Failed to load GUI keys
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, <..\..\src\common\paws\pawsstyles.cpp:38 pawsStyles::LoadStyles SEVERE>
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, Could not find file: /this/data/gui/styles.xml
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, <..\..\src\common\paws\pawsmanager.cpp:174 PawsManager::PawsManager SEVERE>
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, Failed to load PAWS styles, all style application attempts will be ignored
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, <..\..\src\common\paws\pawsmanager.cpp:189 PawsManager::PawsManager SEVERE>
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, Failed to load prefsFile '/this/data/prefs.xml'
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, <..\..\src\common\paws\pawsmanager.cpp:191 PawsManager::PawsManager SEVERE>
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, Failed to load borderFile '/this/data/gui/borderlist.xml'
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, <..\..\src\common\util\psxmlparser.cpp:282 ParseFile SEVERE>
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, Could not find file: /planeshift/data/options/tooltips_def.xml
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, <..\..\src\common\paws\pawsmanager.cpp:1648 PawsManager::LoadTooltips SEVERE>
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, Failed to parse file
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, <..\..\src\common\paws\pawsmainwidget.cpp:47 pawsMainWidget::pawsMainWidget SEVERE>
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, Failed to load GUI keys
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, <..\..\src\common\paws\pawsmanager.cpp:871 PawsManager::ParseWidgetFile SEVERE>
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, Could not find file: /this/data/gui/pslaunch.xml
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, <..\..\src\common\paws\pawsmanager.cpp:931 PawsManager::LoadWidget SEVERE>
Wed Dec 07 18:33:40 2011, Error parsing xml in file: /this/data/gui/pslaunch.xml

I do not know how to fix this. 
I do not know if this is relavent but the psclient.cfg notebook file says:
Video Driver
System.Plugins.iGraphics3D = crystalspace.graphics3d.opengl
;System.Plugins.iGraphics3D = crystalspace.graphics3d.software

I do not know if it matters but a similar issue had seemed to crop up with another person 20 months ago and he said he fixed it by making sure his updater (he did not have the problem with his client) was using his graphics card instead of the intell driver for graphics.  I do not know if it needs changed or not, and if so I have no idea how do do it. 

Just in case it will help can someone tell me how to make sure the game is using my Nividia GForce 4 graphics card (no need to update as the final update was released 2 or 3 years ago).

Also is it possible for the defrag/checkdisk to have changed something?  And if so why didn't an uninstall-->reinstall combo do the trick?

I sincerely doubt that this is a hardware based conflict as the game was working yesterday.  But I have no idea what else to try.

Any advice or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.   

I too am having this problem.  Windows XP service pac 2 amd athalon 2500+ processor, NVIDIA GForce4 MX Integrated GPU. Have the latests drivers with openGL for my graphics.   ....Someone earlier said something about openal bug and getting it fixed.  I want to try that since it seems to have fixed 2 other people's problem ...where do I go to get the fix?