Chris I got round the CD drive problem buy putting in a spare combo drive I had laying around. I dont want to give up. At present I am trying Ubuntu alt installer to see how that goes. I need a laptop as I dont have any space for a desktop. 3 kids and another on the way means very little space or money to myself. Simon --- http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum. (Sent using Sony Ericsson P990i).