SSD - Some newbie help please

Hi

total newbie to this so please excuse the questions if they seem elementary. Saw a video on youtube and thought it was really cool so I did what any calm, rational, thinking middle aged man would do.. I rushed out and bought a SSD system.. bought it second hand though but at a really good price.. I just have some questions :

1) I have the 4 car power pack and after a few minutes of playing the cars stop and the green light on the power pack flashes. If I remove power and reinsert then I'm ok for another few minutes until it does the same thing again ?

2) The straight lane change track seems not to work. I press the lane change button on the control just before passing over the sensor but the lane does not react. If I try to move it by hand to feels pretty stiff.. Is there something I could try or is this throw away and buy new ? The curved one works just fine

3) Is there any way around the annoying fact that those pieces on the lane change tracks are plastic and as such cause the cars to stop as they lose contact with the track

4) I have some funny shaped flat grey plastic pieces with little slots in their edges. They're obviously meant to slot into the track somewhere but cannot figure out where ?

5) An extra that was thrown into the sale is the sport pack .. how does this fit into the scheme of things.

please see here for pics

http://www.fotothing.com/temptwo/photo/25b...72820aa7b12d56/

the power pack , sport pack , faulty lane changer and mystery "spare parts" are shown here.

Appreciate any help