Hmmmm....
I may have fixed it???
While scanning for virii, tied Firfox again. Still no go. So I opened Task manager and noticed 2 instanced of FIREFOX.EXE running under processes (none in applications). I deleted both processes and IE popped up. So I changed the home page in IE to IceInSpace and closed it down.
Tried Firefox again, and it has started.
Fingers crossed it is fixed...
Al.