Dave,

That's interesting.....
I tried with various settings in the config, watchdogs on and off, etc. I always use a 4k7 from MCLR to +5. That's just a "standard" here, and I always use the internal osc, and have never strayed far from 4mhz, so suffice to say that the config is pretty "plain".

Most of the timing floats someplace around variations of 1000 so that an aprox count in seconds should tell me when things happen.

The ONLY change here since the last functional chip is 4.31 software on the MELabs Programmer. And it's interesting that there's another thread nearby that the fellow is using the same programmer (although a much older code) and having "odd" issues.

Once again I've shipped it over to MELabs with a request for help.

Thanks to all who have responded. This kind of discussion is enlightening..

Cheers
Gary