thanks to you guys who advised me on the cpu speed problem - this was fixed in the bios because for some reason it hadn't taken up the maximum speed available from the cpu. i now know why this was. running the 'sandra 2000' utility (excellent program) showed me my memory was now down from 112mb to 96m - and at 200% usage! does this mean i have to now buy more memory? also, to fix some other performance problems i need to upgrade my AMI bios (1997)- this is proving a nightmare because sandra is telling me that while the bios is flash enabled and too old, it is also telling me it is NOT flash enabled, and i cannot seem to flash the bios with the program direct from the board manufacturer (pc chips m810, v5.0), because it is telling me no file exists! I am completely flummoxed by the whole thing and any advice, even from pet hamsters or bits of food lying around the house, will be welcome. cheers, mark

For one thing, you should upgrade to Sandra 2002...you can get the shareware version or if you use any p2p file sharing programs (like KaZaA lite), search for the 2002 Professional version. Also, some of the Notices, Tips & Warnings are generic...they're there regardless of whether you have a specific update or not. Here's a link to your latest BIOS...make sure you get the latest AMI Flash Rom Update utility too. http://www.pcchips.com.tw/BIOS.html

(blushing)uh, do you have the new BIOS file?(can you guess why I ask?)

I had the exact same problem trying to flash my M817LMR mobo from PC Chips because of the horrible, non-english instructions they had on their "English/USA" website. What you have to do is type in what they said PLUS the name of the .rom or whatever file that the BIOS is in. If all goes well, then you should see a little notice that pops up that says "Are you sure you want to flash the BIOS" or something to that effect.

Most all bios flashing programs are used in the same manner as typing in the flash program exe and the name of the rom. Nothing new there, they don't provie instructions to end users. They are not end user technical support. That goes o the place or store you bought your board at.