LOL GB i think i meant MB
yeah i found the old x-com cd after some frantic searching, installed it and copied the saved games over into that, now it works and i can proceed with the game.
However the sound was screwed so i copied a saved game from the DOS version into the version i got from here and launched it. Now i have all the sound back and i dont have the annoying psi lab problem
Thanks for everyones help