Thanks Bruce,

I don't know how many times I have read the LCDOUT section of the manual without seeing that caveat (or at least have it sink into my brain). A valuable lesson learnt!.

I will change over to using a PIC16F684 - pin compatible, does what I need it to do and is less than a dollar more expensive.

Thank you to all who have assisted me in my endeavours.

Cheers
Barry