No, no only joking EBarnacle, I am grateful for any help whatever, perhaps a little embarrassed that I misunderstood Bernard's advice . I thought that he meant I should give the old PC a "rest" after trying each of the keys mentioned. In any case I've tried all now and that includes inserting the Operating Systems Disc which didn't start either. (It's actually not the disc that came with the PC but it is a DELL XP type.) Could I try the first DELL Resource Disk - which DID come with the PC in question ?
Thanks again for your help and the others as well.
Beachcomber.