Agree here.. it sounds like you have lost ground somewhere... what you could do is get your DMM and put this onto true ground from mains input and then test the voltage across the earth on the driver transistor... the voltage you read will give you a clue as to where to start looking

yep gav.........what the    what I'm picturing in my head I think is nothing like what you're saying. Sorry could you elaborate? At the moment I'm thinking I have to connect the earth of either the power point or earth pin of the power plug and then find out where the earth is on a transistor on the driver pcb