Yes OE Classic is a clone but it seems to work rather well and is capable of importing Outlook Express data.
OE Classic appears to be a one time charge of $24 US.
And thanks for the tip on the clock issue, found a couple of articles on that topic but unfortunately the date and time are both correct.
I have a feeling it's something to do the the OS install, everything was working, the computer's hard drive crashed and had to reload from backups. The system restore went without a hitch but Outlook been running into the error ever since.
Don't know if it's related but IE appears to be another victim of the restore as it can't connect to anything, it says can't display the current page or something to that affect. Tired upgrading IE from 6, to 7 then finally to 8 but none of them want to work. something screwy is going on.