turns out the cable I used was useless. I went and bought a Roland usb - midi cable for $45 and I loaded it on first time, it had a driver install cd also which I reckon really helped smooth the operation. The cheap cable I bought and used before had no drivers as it was a plug and play, I think the computer also got confused as I was switching it between usb ports. I suppose you get what you pay for!
Awesome, 3 days and I now no longer have a headache, trying to program an alpha juno with that alpha dial is so tedious!!
Thanks a lot for the advice Mark,
I owe you a beer
Paul