Wot a "DIV" I am !!

You were spot on Roger, I can now view & alter raw files to my hearts content, it was an older version i was using (that came with the A100), which you rightly guessed.

Becuase i always use elements 4 for jpegs I'd never bothered with my raw reading programmes & it did'nt dawn on me that the A200 would have a newer version, probably not helped by the fact that I'd only bought the A100 last Sept, your question and Fen's comments about lightroom turned the light bulb on, thanks guy's, I'll go hide in a dark closet now.