2550 in a coma, mpasm 4k of errors, inc file notfound

I have not had to touch a pic in a while, I got busy with other parts of my life and put all my hobby projects on the back burner so to speak.

yesterday I dragged out my (homebrew) 2550 dev board, plugged in the USB cable, it powered up and the pic ran the software left on it from last time.

I connect the ICSP, erased it, blew new verison on, nothing worked.......

I decided enough is enough, cables, always swapping cables, time to find a nice bootloader.

put one on, plugged it in, yippee windows has made a discovery, you have a 18f4550 family thingybob, great!

Problem was it wont stay connected for more than about 30 seconds, then it bings and re-connects.

Either way, its a start, and I know pics not dead, so back to the old way of ICSP for now...

I'll test it, BLINKYTEST.PBP Oh yes, flash that LED......

No it sits and looks dumb, kind of owner appreciation, I get lots of compiler errors from mpasm, and a few say p18f255.inc not found, portb is not defined, I have illegal opcodes.....

But it does compile and program, so it cant be that bad, if it was a fatal error it would not compile and program right /?

SO I look at fuses, I see that they are set different in the non working blinky state to the working bootloader state, so I copy the fuse settings by hand, and re blow the pic.

still nothing, no blinks, no flashes, nada.

I spent 7 hours at this yesterday, I have spent another 4 today, I have a pic that I can load the Microchip hex into and it identifies as a usb device so its fine electrically.

I can program and verify and it checks out fine.

can I get it do anything for me today, no..............

I have tried all the usual analog off tricks, but its now down to myth and magic.........

during all this I just had a police woman come running into my backyard to go face to face with my dog, oh yes thats my fault as well, she after someone who /may/ have gone through my garden, just like she went through the gate with a big 'watch the vicious dog' sign she choose to ignore, but yes its my fault again.......

she probably knows about as much about 18f2550's as she does about police work, so I dont ask if she can help.......

I'd post my code but its no use when it wont work..............
(and its only on off loop.....)