> When I logon in TEXT mode, I entered a command "STARTX"

Ahhhhhh........very good. Apologies for being a dunderhead and not seeing this, even as it was staring me in the face. Many thanks, Radnor.

I'll file that little tidbit away for future use, because so far this machine continues to run swimmingly, going directly into the gui on every boot (so far) since it "checked" and "forced" earlier.