Arduino robot problems getting started.

I have a fair bit of knowledge programming etc however I'm not terribly clear on the jargon used here.

I've purchased a Arduino robot, and eventually found the web page that talks about powering it up etc.

The small screen lights up and we went through adding names, although some letters duplicated themselves.

I'm unclear if the robot should be turned on or off when uploading code to it. I suspect off.

Before I stumbled across the relevant web page I uploaded blink and that seemed to work.

I tried the motor test but nothing appeared to happen, it seemed to upload OK.

Currently after pressing the reset button on the device the software for uploading is telling me it cannot detect the device on the com port.

Suggestions please.

Thanks John

An Arduino Robot or an Arduino board? Which board do you have? (Even if it's a robot, I assume there's a board inside)