Praise the Lord,
I'm still not quite sure why but it's running
I think the reason to all this was an evil alliance between;
* a corrupt JSGME install (thanks again for this tip)
and
* that weird location of the .ini file as I had no luck until I started to track it down.
If I hadn't got the advice to look into the JSGME I don't think I would have solved it.
Thanks again for your support

(I've cancelled my appointment with the shrinks)