Just to close this thread off in case anyone is following....unfortunately my laptop which for some reason wasn't registering the software after needing a complete windows clean install died on me recently. I believe the laptop suffered mobo failure as power adaptor was fine as was the power feed to mobo (stripped down and check out). As laptop was coming up to 8 years old I couldn't really warrant further investigation or replacing mobo so we never did figure out what the problem was.
I will add, I have no doubt Phillip (Pscan.uk) would have found the problem and I'd like to thank him for his support in trying to diagnose what the issue was.