to get the usb to boot, you will have to tell your system to do so instead of trying to run xp from the hard drive. there are a couple of ways to do so, but almost all of those are different depending on the computer. one way is to set the usb as the first boot option in bios and the other (that my computer has, but i don’t think all do) is to press a certain key when the system boots to choose the usb. i believe in your case the easier way will be to figure out how to designate the usb as first boot option in bios.
OK, I’ll try to designate an option.
Many many thanks for your time and assistance, it is very much appreciated. 
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i’m happy to try and help. hopefully your sacrificial laptop will be ready for the altar in short order 
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i thought of something that might be an issue that i didn’t see earlier. it has to do with the fact that your laptop originally had windows xp on it and the fact that you have downloaded ubuntu-18.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso (the amd64 part means it is for 64-bit computers). the concern is that i believe the laptop most likely has 32-bit cpu architecture (xp was almost exclusively 32-bit except for higher end business [mostly servers] systems if i remember correctly). the link below does a good job of describing what that means, but the part that is relative to your laptop is that if it is 32-bit it won’t be able to run that version of ubuntu even if the usb is written correctly.
i don’t mean to throw all kinds of technical terms at you at once. i promise i am trying to save you some time and frustration
if you were able to boot into xp, you could tell easily if it was 32- or 64-bit. since that isn’t an option, i believe the sensible course of action would be to write the usb with a 32-bit iso to check. you can get a 32-bit (i386) version of ubuntu here (in the desktop image section): Ubuntu 16.04.7 LTS (Xenial Xerus)
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I understand about the 32-64 Bit as I read it in Ubuntu instructions, but it also said when in doubt use 64 Bit, I din’t really think that was a good idea, but Ubuntu knows best so I tried it.
Your suggestion re 32 Bit makes a lot of sense.
I Downloaded the 16.04 32 BIt via etcher, plugged it into xp laptop, obviously something happened as the pc disc light was blinking furiously, but nothing changed on the laptop.
I tried rebooting laptop, no change.
I removed USB, plugged it into the PC I’m using, it appears to have died! Tried several sockets on PC, nothing there.
So, it looks like I’m not going to get anywhere attempting this, but I have learned a lot by trying so that’s a good thing.
I’ll buy a cheap laptop with Ubuntu pre-installed then come back when I need help with that.
I do have other questions, but I’d probably be best starting other threads for those.
Thank you very much for all of the time that you’ve spent helping me, you are very much appreciated.
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i’m sorry to hear things didn’t work out, but glad you were able to learn some things. learning new things about operating systems specifically and computers in general is one of my favorite parts of having switched to linux i hope you are able to find what you are looking for in a pre-installed ubuntu laptop.
new threads are usually a good idea for new (or even just slightly different approaches to) questions so more people can get eyes on them instead of thinking they are a continuation of a discussion they didn’t have anything to add to.
i was happy to try and help and glad you felt comfortable enough with the community to bring your concerns and questions here. good luck moving forward
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As they say " he who never tried and failed, never achieved anything".
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