Steve,
1. Try doing this in this order. Go into directory manager and remove every directory possible so its completely empty.
2. Go to the actual location of where the samples are and confirm they are still there.
3. Connect your USB Dongle to your computer and launch the eLicenser program. Does it load up, find your key and actually show you all of your licenses? If not, remove the dongle and reconnect it, reboot the machine and try this step again. If it still doesn't see it, be sure you are running the latest elicenser.
4. Re-open the Directory Manager and add the locations of the samples again.
5. Launch the VI Player stand alone and see if you can load some samples (do not open Finale, I mean literally just run the VSL VI Player stand alone). If you can load samples here you should be fine to open your projects. If you can't load projects in Finale but can in VSL, the issue is with your Finale Update.
6. Perhaps you need to re-run the plug-in scanner for Finale (I have no idea how to do this because I've never used it).
Hope one of those helps.
Maestro2be