Postmaster refuses to start

Hi,

I've been using Postgresql 7.3.2 -5 mdk successfully until a major power
outage that had forced my box to reboot (under voltage conditions)
unsuccessfully twice. As a result, now when I try to access my db, I get:

psql: could not connect to server: Connection refused
        Is the server running locally and accepting
        connections on Unix domain socket "/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432"?

error message. Reading the archives, it was suggested to delete
/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432, but it doesn't exist! Running ps -ef, obviously there are
no PID for the db connection that refuses to connect.

I uninstalled the whole mess, and re-installed Postgresql, but I now cannot
createdb since I get the same error message. Are there  hidden file(s) to
look for and delete? My config:

pg_hba.conf  set to 'local all trust'
postmaster.pid and postmaster .opts -- both empty

I'm at a total loss of what to do, or where to look --- any ideas?

Tia,
Andre