Thanks JGO, I just ran the BT desktop help prog and that couldn't repair it, again I've done all the usual things I know of, restart the hub, (which is only a few months old) etc; as a matter of fact i've just now got the laptop connected again, it was fine from yesterday AM until about 3 ish today, I'll get my son to bring his laptop for trying, although as the fault is intermittent it make take some time to correct.
Thanks again.
Peter