Thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately this is my main PC so no way I could re-install windows now... it would take a couple days just go get anywhere close to ho wit is now hehe. Any other ideas anyone?

Take a look at the vertcoin settings thread. Someone asked the
same question recently. You need to run from the command line so you can see the error message before the window closes. That will give you an indication what to do, or at least something to google.