Thanks all. Stormy, in terms of computer knowledge, I'm on about the third rung up a twenty step ladder, which makes me a guru to about 70% of the puter-owning population I've found, whereas in truth I know sweet fanny adams, as my continual questions here would have made obvious. Your hubby is welcome to make any suggestions at any time....err, about computers, that is.
TCS, so I can remove anything from the startup list and know I'm not going to cause any adverse effects? That would certainly be handy to know.
Richard, likewise with the Registry. I use RegCleaner, which is a nice little program, but again I'm reluctant to delete anything if I don't know the RAMifications. (sorry...). And what is a SODIMM? Are you insulting a poor defenceless RAM chip?
Anyway, as advised, laptop is now working fine, raising Dad's credibility no end. 128Mb is, as suggested, a little tight with XP, but B1's requirements are not onerous, mainly music and word processing, and it's usually quite sufficient.
Thanks for all suggestions.