Here is a screen shot after I after I deleted the picture cache and opend one of the demo projects provided by cakewalk
 
https://www.dropbox.com/s...4-07-18%2023.01.41.png
 

Thanks for your help but has anyone got any ideas?  Just installed Ableton and it all works fine so it is definitely a problem specific to sonar

Has anyone got any ideas for this as it's driving me nuts

The symptoms indicate that SONAR cannot open the playback audio device.
Do you get an error when you set the ASIO preferences in SONAR and close the dialog? Make sure no other app is referencing the ASIO device. Also if you have ASIO4All uninstall it or make sure its not using the same audio device since that can cause issues.

You'll also get this if there is no playback timing master set. Check that in Prefs-->Driver settings.
 
HTH

Thanks very much FBB you nailed it......gent and a scholar!

Glad to be of service....