Hi Shane...thanks for the info.

Just to report that my PC onscreen text from my PIC is no longer garbled with (heaps) of interupts ...using the HSEROUT command (9600 baud) coupled with the PICKit2 Uart tool - not a MAX232 chip in sight :-)

The last thing I now need to achieve is user input!

Essentially, when my program first starts, I need to prompt the user for input (using the HSERIN or SERIN command)- the input will always be three characters long - terminated with a CR.

I've googled a fair bit on this one (HSERIN & SERIN), but surprisingly, I've not find anything that a newbie like myself can latch onto easily!

Could anyone be so kind to help out?