Richard,
I tried that today but the fault ocurred straight after starting up. Later in the day after the pc had been on a few hours I turned it off then back on and the dots dissappeared! I have since restored the system and reloaded the drivers so everything seems OK at the moment....we will see! I also today set up a wireless network in my home so that I can take my laptop out on the green on a lovely summers day....whenever that will be! Two issues being that the email does not now work on my desktop which is where the router is connected (d-link G604T) I have checked the settings and they appear to be correct. I keep getting a command to enter my username and password which I have checked and is correct. Email works fine on my laptop. Some sites seem very slow to connect to as well and this was not the case previously. PPrune is fine! Also I am unable to put my firewall on on the laptop as when I do I am unable to use wireless.
Edited to add:
I have solved the email problem.