The tests showed "excellent" but the problem remained.
After a lot of trial and error it seems to be fixed. Somehow a few of the windows services either turned themselves on when they were previously off, or somehow they started to interfere. So I went in and started turning things off.
Attached is the screen capture of the services configuration utility in XP with the settings that seem to work... in case anyone else runs into this.
I was going to get the smooth stepper, but just the thought of having to mess with it all over again... oh well, may be next time.