Thanks for responding so quickly Doc. I tried System Restore as soon as I read your suggestion (and had not realised how powerful it is on XP). I had loaded some drivers for a "pre-XP" scanner and a webcam and so went back to before then , to mid November in fact. But, no luck; the link problem remains and I suspect now that I have probably had it ever since having a new hard disc and processor installed earlier in November - I had crashed my drive after corrupting XP, apparently by running the drive pretty close to full. I am a Brit living in France and since my French is not always up to translating all the Windows commands on my French pc, my neighbour did the change-out for me. I know I must sound like a pretty hopeless case but I would really appreciate suggestions as to what to try next.
