Thanks to all who have replied, including Darmok and Dave earlier today.
I've forwarded your suggestions to my son who took the laptop back to school
yesterday. I do not know if he has re-formatted and re-loaded Windows XP
yet. If not and one of these suggestions leads to a fix I will post what he
finds.

Bob

"Dave" wrote in message
...

....Excellent listing of ideas and things to try deleted for brevity