That did make sense mate!  deleting my drivers seems unsuccessful 2 are throwing up error, really really aggrovating me now! If anything its got worse when I click read ecu I can't even shut it in task manager it goes weird! I've made it run as administrator, compatability windows xp sp3, I've coded serial on program to cable and its still being a pain in the a**e! making me lose sleep! hope some one can understand and help me!!!!!!

Personally I would focus on one thing at a time. <-do what as I say, not as I do. Get the xp machine going. It's meant to be on there, it'll be the easiest, it'll do what you want it to do, and then work on the luxury of having it on your newer machines. I literally had a fresh xp machine once I dug her up. I needed to update microsoft net frameworks, and service pack 1 or 2. but I think that was it. You just have to get your drivers straight. Disable updating, delete everything, and install the drivers you want to use.

Cheers for info I might just pursue the xp route!
I found the ghosted stuff on device manager through command prompt last night and it didn't list anything related to usb drivers vag com ext. Are you talking about my general drivers or usb ftdi related?
Cheers Jordan

if you need help we can setup a remote session and i could take a peak