*SNIP* Then, when I go back to it, I am still left waiting for a long > period petween bios and opporating system load where the computer does nada. one thing that can cause this is ram. how much memory does you machine have in it? I ask this because I'm running a P2 300 with xp on it and I get a long period of waiting from the time the bios loads until the hard drive starts spinning. One way I've found to aleviate this is by hitting the escape key when powering up just after bios load to stop the ram count. and 9 times out of 10, that works for me. hth -- Shaun Oliver It's multiple choice time... What is FORTRAN? a: Between thre and fiv tran. b: What two computers engage in before they interface. c: Ridiculous.