I have tried http://localhost/reports but no joy. I am installing on a pc workstation with windows xp prof. No server involved in this, just single machine installation.

Ben,

The actual error message is as above in my first posting and, yes, I have sql 2005 sp2 installed, although reporting services did not work even before I installed sp2....

No I am not using the developer edition for production. All three server installs are on development and test servers under development. I am still using sql 2000 for production....