Remove all existing products from your Admin > Catalog > Featured section; then the feated page should load but with a message of there being no featured products. Then add a product to your featred to see itbthat arreas correctly.
Let us know how you get on.
ok removed all products from the featured list...still the error message and I even opened in a different browser
maybe there is an old file lurking about? I will try re-uploading the files again if have to
yes what i finally did was just remove the files and reup them to the new serve and then they behaved.
possibly one or two of the single-listing template mod was left out---how i have no clue when i upped the entire folder but it did...now all seems to be back to normal
thanks