Loner,
My mac is new. I got an open box model, late 2014. It is 27" late 2014 I7 4.0 with hybrid drive and 16GB memory. I still have telephone support, and spent many hours with with a senior tech consultant trying to make it go. I finally did get it to load on a USB flash drive, but the windows load had no cursor. After many tries, I finally got a cursor one time, so could progress, That one time, I got to the partition list. I went to the BOOT CAMP partition, and, per instructions, reformatted the partition (to change it from FAT32 to NTFS). That time, the program informed me that there was no legitimate partition which would accept my windows program. Then I went back to try again and got no cursor. I even loaded from a DVD to a USB flash drive and got no cursor. At that time, I gave up and dredged up an old copy of Parallels. I'd have preferred Boot Camp, but after 20-30 hours, I don't think I can get it to work.
Thanks. If you have any more thoughts, I'm open to getting them. Otherwise, I frankly give up. And many thanks for all suggestions.