Thunderbird Password file location

[Styma, Robert E (Robert)]

I use thunderbird on my machine at home.  Recently, my
access to the newsgroups has been degrading.  At first
it would prompt me for the login and password when the
were supposedly saved.  Now I just get a "item contains
no data" message.  If I close Tbird and reopen it, sometimes
it gets better.

If I try to open the password display from the 
Thunderbird preferences, the window opens for about a
half second and closes.  I believe the file which stores
the passwords has been corrupted.  Thus I cannot clean
things up by the usual methods.

I would prefer not to wipe out my whole profile and
start over.  Having to reenter the passwords and tell
the system to remember them would not be so bad.

Does anyone know what file has to be killed off to 
clean off all the passwords to a clean state?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Bob Styma
Phoenix, Az