Resolved problem
I got the following advice from star force..... and it works!!!
Star force say that the problem is not caused by them but they are aware of it and do have a work around available to solve it.
What they do not say is that after clean install, LOAD UPGRADE DRIVER FIRST. After activation of the 'updatemodule' you will be unable to upgrade to patch v1.4b.
I copied the original SH3.exe to a spare folder - just in case I need it again.
Below is a copy of Star Force advise.
This message means that the module was modified by some other process, which is not related to the protection system. We have some kind of workaround for that issue. You should use it only in case you are sure that there are no viruses on your computer. Here is a detailed instruction of what you should do.
First of all you should learn the path to the game: right-click on the icon of the game, select Properties -> Shortcut -> Target. It should be like this, for example: "C:\Program Files\Company name\Product title\game.exe". Here "game.exe" is the name of executable file & "C:\Program files\Company name\Product title" is the folder with the game.
Second, you should unpack UpdateModule.exe from UpdateModule.ZIP to the folder with the game (Download UpdateModule.ZIP from here:
http://help.starforce.ru/tmp/UpdateModule.zip).
Then press Start -> Run... and type manually "cmd" (here and below you should type the commands without quotation marks).
Type in, command by command:
"cd <folder with the game>" (in my example it will be "cd C:\Program Files\Company name\Product title")
"updatemodule <name of the game's executable> <any name of executable, other from the original>" (my example: "updatemodule game.exe game2.exe")
"copy <name of executable, other from the original> <name of the game's executable> /y" (my example: "copy game2.exe game.exe /y")
"del <name of executable, other from the original>" (my example: "del game2.exe")
"exit"
Try running the game now.
Below is what I typed in cmd to resolve the problem:
Press enter after each line
cmd
cd\program files\ubisoft\silenthunterIII (note III is capital i)
updatemodule sh3.exe sh3x.exe
copy sh3x.exe sh3,exe/y
del sh3x.exe
exit
Hope this helps anybody else who ends up in my position.
I'm back in, joy!!!!!
Thanks again to those who offered help - that's what this forum is all about
Regards
U2222