Sorted it!!
Now works properly.
For those of you who care - which is probably only me - I had an hour long conversation with MicroSoft....then went out and bought a new sound card...a SoundBlaster "PCI 128" for $60 (£40).
Now, works like a dream. Seems the three year old soundblaster that I was using would not handle sufficient MIDI components to power the stick correctly.
The move, by the way, was forced upon me by having a CDRom burner fitted to the machine in addition to the original CDRom reader....and the old soundcard could not handle two audio inputs.
Thanks to all who offered their help. Thankyou.
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LIVE in peace...or REST in it!