Thanks Frank
On the laptop front...well according to the computer repair people it is unrepairable
Seems there is a mjor fault on the motherboard and the parts are unavailable. They are removing the hard drive and putting it in an external casing so I can have all the data from it still.
Sooooo looks like Santa will be getting me a new laptop for Christmas...beforehand hopefully
.
Any suggestions as to the best model (under $1000 would be ideal)?
Mike