can never get a LCD to work with UNO

floresta:
]There is nothing in the original post that mentions anything specific about the LCD that he is using or the code that he is trying to run it with. I don't see any mention about whether he is or is not using a shield as the word 'shield' appears nowhere in the post.

Yes there is. He said with a startling clarity that only bad punctuation can provide

".ive used sample progs from tronixstuff..... "

Now, how clear is that?

Your reading skills might be a bit limited, but you only had to stagger to the second line. I made an assumption that he is not using the freetronics shield, for which the tronixstuff code was written, hence his problem. I guess you had difficulty reading my posts as well, but I had the same problem, with the same code for the same reason, hence my posting a solution - which worked for me.