Hi Guys,
I'm back, my laptop's up & running.
I thought I'd fried it.
Hubby's been stuck in bed for the last couple of months, so we weren't able to make the 2 hour trip to sydney to see if it was repairable.

Rang Dell to find out where to take it. The techie had me pulling it apart over the phone, removing battery, pushing buttons, then removing hardrive , then the memory chips. Still looked dead with just an occasional flicker.
At the end of it all, I was offered an extension to my warranty & they'd fix it. $1,000AUD for the 1 year extension.
I decided no, as for an extra $400 to $500 I'd get a brand new one with 1gig memory ( instead 0f 512mb, dvd burner & double size hardrive.

Anyway with nothing to lose I kept unplugging & swapping round the memory chips. All of a sudden it sprang back to life. So fingers crossed.

Best part is , I've got all my soundfont edits back & backed up this time, so I haven't lost months worth of work.

I'll give it a few more days, ( hopefully still working) and then I'll consider upgrading the memory & try & decide what new softsynths to add to the system.

Keep the suggestions rolling.

best wishes
Rikki