Thanks for your fast answer. I was trying to download stckrom from samsung but it takes ages. Sorry to bother, but I have an extra question. I bought this tablet in Vienna a few days ago and live in Argentina. I would prefer to load a more amenable stockrom. Can I use the US version or am I stuck to the austrian version? Thanks again. I"m a very old timer (close to 81 now) but I enjoy meddling with all types of TI. Actually I wanted to root to try to recover pictures lost in a hasty hard reset. Thanks again.

First of all I am very sorry what you have been going through currently. Our forum is strictly moderated, thats why the posts are not published automatically.
Further to your issue, that you are facing, it's better to stick on to your native country firmware.
Also from your latest post I got to know that you are currently in boot loop. Please follow the below tutorial to resolve the bootloop issue.

http://www.samsungsfour.com/tutorials/how-to-resolve-android-boot-loop.html

Please don't worry your tab will be fine, if you follow the above tutorial correctly.

Kindly revert back if you face any further issues, also please continue with the same forum thread and please don't create a new post in the future.

Thanks again. Actually it took me a long while to break the loop, but once I did I was able to flash the stock rom downloaded at your site and recover the original condition. Was not able to root, though, and now I'm kind of concerned to keep trying. Your help was invaluable and I remain very grateful.

I am very happy to know that you got out of boot loop successfully.
Rooting is tricky sometimes and bad things happen, so next time when you root please make a complete backup of your tab so that it can be restored if something goes wrong.
You are most welcome to request for any further help, we will be there for you always.....