Ok, I've been searching for days now for the answer to this, at least one for the novice. In WP forums, some say being able to hide comments on posts from public view is a "theme level" thing. Others say there are plug-ins for this. I have yet to find one that offers a simple installation or instructions for modifying a PHP file that make any sense to a beginner.

Am I looking for something that just doesn't exist?!
I'm using a Hidepost plugin to restrict POSTS to registered members, but the comments under those posts are STILL totally PUBLIC (which I don't want!)

Any ideas? Anyone? Anywhere? Ack!

I confused, you say you want to hide comments from the 'non-members' then you say

I'm using a Hidepost plugin to restrict POSTS to registered members, but the comments under those posts are STILL totally PUBLIC (which I don't want!)

So are you trying to hide posts and comments from non-members? or what. And when mentioning a plugin, it's nice if you can point to the actual plugin - that is if you hope someone will help you, it would be nice to know just what plugin you are using.

Woops, Sorry. The plug-in I'm using to make posts viewable to registered members only is called WP Hide Post. It allows me to put a simple piece of code into each post.
The problem I'm having is that although the actual post (article) is now protected, all the comments made on those posts can still be viewed by anyone, as in they're totally public and I don't want them to be. I want the comments made on posts to be hidden and only viewable if you are a registered member and signed in. Does this make more sense I hope?
I've found some potential solutions in other forums, but those solutions involve some edits to certain PHP files that get way over my head. Was hoping for a similar plug-in to the WP Hide Post that will work for the comments section of each post as well.

if you swap to the default theme, do the comments show up there also? i.e. is this a theme dependent issue

When I switch to the WP Default theme, I'm still not finding any settings to hide comments. So you think it's a theme dependent then?
I was starting to think that, so I came to this forum for guidance.

if you switched to the default theme and the comments still show up, then it is a plugin issue. (which still might be fixable)
If the comments are gone using the default theme, thene it is an Atahualpa caused issue which will bear a deeper investigation and probably a small fix to a peice of code.

Which case is it?