HTML being stripped in View, Ok in Edit (Yes Filtered text is selected)

Heads up - first time user of cck

Drupal 6.15 (actualluy an acquia drupal setup), cck version noted above

CCK textfield set to as Filtered, not plain text

On display all I get is the text, none of the html, an image, etc. Everything looks fine in edit
The page source shows allt he html has been stripped

I am doing this as user#1 - doubt its a permissions issue
Tried on both FULL HTML and Filtered HTML
Even changed Filtered HTML to not escape any HTML

Problem occurs in CKEditor (Module), FCKEditor (Module), and
WYSIWYG module using ckeditor, fckeditor, and tinymce libraries

Tried in IE8 and Firefox (latest)
If I use Plaintext, not Filtered, - I see the html as text in the view, so the filter is working in some way, just seems to be escaping all html no matter what

I've search bug reports and cant find this issue at all - except when people dont select Filtered
So I guess its me but damn if I know what to test next?

This is a personal priority and I have spent hours in testing/checking so far - attention, even if makes me look like a newbie :) is appreciated - at wits end cause I assuem this should work?

I dont have to many extra modules installed (though acquia does several) ideas on what to remove/test?

Allan