Thanks for the help - the regonal settings was reporting it as day month
year. I switched it and works fine. I was in there previously and never
noticed it (I was looking to see if the year was at the end of the entry).

Entering as 4 oct works too, with both short date formating (but I've been
using oct 4 format so long I can't change ...)

The 1904 date system was not checked.

Thanks for the help guys,
Sorry for late responce.