“couldn’t find skydrive folder” message on my PC – syncing stopped

Skydrive suddenly stopped working today on my Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop - windows 8. It is still working on my Surface Pro. I get the message "couldn't find your skydrive folder" on my laptop but the local Skydrive folder is still there. Skydrive website states that it cannot connect to my PC - laptop. When I click on reconfigure skydrive from the couldn't find folder message box there is a brief response. The skydrive icon appears for about 1 second on the task bar and then disappears. If I click on my laptop skydrive folder, the items lose their syncing status icons and become normal folders without green ticks. I cannot restart from the skydrive icon in the task bar as advised as it is not visible anywhere except for the 1 second after clicking on the reconfigure button. I have both windows 8 and desktop apps for Skydrive installed on my laptop. The desktop version takes me to my skydrive folder and triggers the above error message.