As Dr Frankenstein once said
"It's alive"
Chip had solder bridges so lovely lady at work removed xlink chip I think it was and resoldered on (did have one more but she's showed me how to solve it)
Also, the guys at work who to the chip re-programming had a look and said the chip is right one specified from what they see of them (which is loads), so doesn't appear to be a clone but if it was and having trouble flashing they can identify chip and flash with the progrmmer machine.
But gladly I've managed to flash with the 512K x2.4981.06.bin and am now running Slayers EvoX
Plan to mess about with that but will probably end up posting about something else, huge thanks for all the help and offers, hope to return the favour.