I did have a look at the Mister_e tool, but it said it needed a dll i didnt have.

Also still same, but then i found baudcon.4=1.......bingo! (Ok a friend pointed to it!)

Seems i needed my bits the other way up...

Other issue still remains, portc.1=high, but i see nothing in the above to cause it?

No doubt its a quirk of using the Hw instead of the software routine.

I could always consider it a power light....