Advanced Find doesn't find anything, ever

I have used advanced find before with no trouble. Today, I tried to use it
again, searching the same folders for the same info as I did last week, but
it won't find anything. I can use the find feature inside a folder and that
works. But, to have advanced find search 4 different contacts folders for a
name results in a perpetual search. While advanced find is "looking", I can
go right into the contacts folder and find the name myself. I have tried
detect and repair and rebooting my system.

There are no KB articles to address this. What happened?

And, no, I don't want to upgrade. We rely heavily on the Net Folders
features not available in versions past 2000. Besides, 2000 has worked fine
for 8 years, albeit with all the nuisance bugs one expects from MS. Newer
versions are replete with their own bugs.

Thanks in advance....