handicracker, you wrote,

 Firefox still would not start and just came up with the usual little box which I clicked to send the umpteenth fault report

..."little box" and "fault report" sounds like a Windows XP error message (Firefox has stopped working, illegal operation or "page fault" error, faulting application firefox.exe etc.) not the Mozilla Crash Reporter.

The EXACT text or a screenshot of the error message would help. See How do I create a screenshot of my problem?

Yes it was the Mozilla Crash Reporter - I just couldn't remember it's name. I have Windows XP with SP3.

No I don't get a computer crash. It was the Mozilla Crash Reporter which comes up each - I just couldn't remember it's name. I have Windows XP with SP3.

We're sorry to hear that your Firefox seems to be crashing when you open it. Please perform the following steps to give us a crash report ID that helps us find out more about the cause of the crash.

1. Press the following shortcut to get a Run window: [Windows] + [R]. This should bring up a window that contains a text field.
2. In that text field, enter %APPDATA% and press Enter. An explorer window should open.
3. From that explorer window, double-click on the Mozilla folder, then double-click on Firefox and then on Crash reports. Double-click on submitted.
4. Now, you should see a list of files that contain reports. Go to View > Arrange Icons by > Modified to get the most recent files at the top of the window.
5. Open the most recent 5 files with a text editor and copy the IDs.
6. Paste each ID with bp- into the reply window on the forums.

Thanks in advance!

You can find more information and troubleshooting steps in the Troubleshoot Firefox crashes (closing or quitting unexpectedly) article.