Oracle Database Express Edition (XE)

Had a running version of oracle 10g express running on my laptop which has been working fine for around 8 weeks. Was using it yesterday afternoon just to browse some entries, did not load up any new software or change anything then shut down for the night.
Ran it up again today and have no access to localhost:8080/apex/.

Tried everything to get it working again, services were running but unable to process sql via the cli, so reinstalled the db again. Now after 10 reloads its still not working.

Any ideas chaps as I have to have the db working on this laptop for a presentation in a couple of days and I have no idea what is happening.

Plenty of errors in the event viewer, eg. event id (5) in source (oracle.xe) cannot be found. The local computer may nothave the necesary registry information or message DLL to display messages from a remote computer.

Stuff knows what that all means as I am on the localhost but ....?

Thanks in advance.....Mick