.htaccess .htpasswd no user\pwd request - AllowOverride set to all

Can anyone please save me from spending another 5 hours trying to work
this out?!

I'm not getting a username & passwd request when trying to access pages
that *should* be protected by .htaccess and .htpasswd. The 2 files
contain :

cat .htaccess
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Restricted Files"
AuthUserFile /home/mike/.htpasswd
Require user mike

cat /home/mike/.htpasswd
mike:VuCSDFj0hUb5M

I've set :
AllowOverride all
in httpd.conf

I've been trying to access pages in this folder from a windows box, so
have been closing the browser & clearing the cache on the windows
machine every time the config has changed, and have been restarting the
httpd service every time for good measure. I've also traced with
Etheral & verified there's no cacheing going on & that the pages are
coming from the Apache box. I've chmodded 777 both .htaccess &
..htpasswd in case there's a permissions problem- I know that's a really
bad thing to do but am just trying to prove what is happening.

Any advice \ suggestions would be gratefully received!

Cheers,

Mike.