Sorry for the late reply guys - thanks again for all the help & advice.

Data - I didn't know you were a programming monkey like me (that's our nickname in work as opposed to a spanner weilding tecchie) :E I am trying to learn C# at the moment - it's a lot to take in!

Cheers
Maz :ok:

Try looking on e-bay, type "Dell scratched" into the search... got my last PC this way, had to look really close to find the damage. You may have to wait if you atre after a specific model, but it is always worth keeping an eye, as there are the odd bargains. Remember these prices are without a monitor.

Kev

Toothpic - I missed the 'ebay' bit in your above post and wondered why I wasn't getting anywhere! Fool! ;)

Mazzy, I haven't been *paid* to programme, oooh, for about 10 years now. But I still keep my hands dirty to 'roll-my-own' stuff when there isn't something out there to do what I need to do. And people know about my background so I get called in just to have a look at a 'little problemette' which turns out to require a full system rewrite...

So I tend to stay quiet these days and pretend I know nothing about computers :E

Data - I don't blame you matey - the thing is, as soon as you tell anybody that you know the smallest little thing about computers - you are automatically an expert and EXPECTED to fix anything!

:p