OK – the problem is isolated to the laptop I am using – the same one I used to install the download. When using another laptop, I experience no issues and visual editor is working fine.
I have cleared the caches on the original laptop, even installed Opera and cannot get access to the visual editor in any browser – Firefox, IE, Chrome or Opera. Clearly the problem is with this laptop, not with the install, plugins, etc. Any suggestions as to how I can get this laptop functioning again in regard to visual editor?