As I said before, a repair won't reinstall anything that you had previously uninstalled the correct way. If anything is going to be installed, it's because you didn't use the installer for whatever you deleted before - and Office thinks it should still be present. That may be at the heart of your problem.

As for slipstreaming, if you had done that, then Help|About would be showing that SP3 was installed, not SR1a.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

OK, fine, I understand.

The question now is what is the solution?

If I cannot uninstall, reinstall or Add Features, then there are only 2 options:

1. Reinstall XP and all apps. No way Jose.

2. There is some advice on cleaning the system of Office, but it's a hassle and there is no guarantee this will solve it. In which case, add the hassle reinstalling XP.

In other words, no solution. SO I'll have to live without a spell checker.

Thanx for your help.