another strange thing is one of them booted up normally again "once", next time the problem was back. I am also getting a message that "no 80 pin cable installed" which I assume means the hard drive. This comes just before the floppy fails. There can be no such thing as an 80 pin cable for floppy drives can there??? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Talk Shop http://www.computertalkshop.com Un-subscribe/Vacation, http://www.computertalkshop.com/list_options.htm List HowTo: http://www.computertalkshop.com/faq.htm To join Computer Talk Shop's off topic list, please goto: http://computertalkshop.com/other_cts_lists.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------------