thanks George for your reply too. only noticed your reply after answering jazz so we just cross posted!

Yes the Mach that I have was supplied on a CD and I'm sure its been unlocked as it never asked me for a key. not sure of the version I will have to look that up tomorrow. Going to get a legit version of Mach but need to try and get this machine running first( if possible!) as this could really break my budget the way this is going!

thanks for the cable suggestions I'm going to give that a shot tomorrow.

will let you know if I find anything!

thanks andy