trouble uploading

Yes my son and I have spent 4 hours trying to do this, read the forum FAQ etc and I am supposed to be an electronics engineer but my son types to quickly for me and my eyesight reading resistor colours is not so good anymore.

Basic question is we bought an 11 board but can't upload anything, times out after 10 goes. Have installed driver which says it is there on USB 3 (comm1) but then instructions says something about serial port. Confused. Connect up but just goes into preloaded flash program and can't upload.

afmartyn:
Basic question is we bought an 11 board but can't upload anything

What is an "11 board"?

afmartyn:
instructions says something about serial port. Confused.

Arduino boards use a USB to Serial chip, which provides a virtual COM port. Also known as a Serial Port.