Thanks for the reply's....
Finally solved it, it had to be either the Graphics card or M'board ...... Felt the ECS Elite K7VTA3 board couldn't cope with the GEForce DDR M440 graphics .....
Took the risk and changed the M'board to an Asus A7V333 ... ploblem solved ...... after hours/days of frustration thinking it was XP where the problem was ....
These problems are extreemly frustrating ....
At least now I have a very up to date Motherboard .... supports DDR 333 ... Raid ..... 6 USB's (2 USB2) .... great inbuilt sound etc etc (cost £77 from RL in watford ...) ......
I sometimes think PC's are electronic lego at its best ... sometimes it fits together and builds a wonderfull model other times although it fits together it doesn't do what it's supposed to !