xampp running on startup - WordPress not found, must restart

[charles_i]

I have been using xampp to run WordPress locally for several months - when I returned from my holidays I found that xampp is running when my computer boots up - even though it's not listed as a program in startup (using Windows XP). If I go to localhost I get "It Works!" but if I try to go to phpmyadmin or http://localhost/wordpress/wp-login.php I get "the requested URL ... was not found on this server." The only thing that seems to work is if I run xampp_restart.exe each time. I don't have a firewall on, or an anti-virus program running, or Skype. Any ideas how I can fix this?

Thanks
Charles

[charles_i]

Another strange development is if I start Apache and then try to Start MySql - MySql only shows "running" for a few seconds and then turns itself off. Weird....