Hi all One of our bar staff just brought me her PII 333 MHz computer (Windows 98) to see if I could fix it. I know it's old and outdated but she only uses it for emails and writing stuff in Word. She says sometimes it starts up normally, but after switching it off, she has to wait 3 of 4 *days* (!) for it to start up again normally. She said it started up normally yesterday Thursday. When I tried today Friday afternoon, it wouldn't detect the HD so presumeably I need to wait 3 days.... It has 1 CD ROM which is detected on start up, and one Fujitsu 2,1 Gb Harddisk which is not detected. This is what I've tried so far: - A new battery - 7 different harddisks, not all of which have an O/S on them, but they aren't being detected in BIOS anyway - 2 different, new cables from the mother board to the hard drives - Different power cable/plug (there are several unused) - Her HD as master and another one as slave (both correctly jumped): Neither are detected in BIOS. - In BIOS: I've tried setting the primary master to AUTO (not detected) and USER (using the cyinders.. etc info from the Fujitsu website for this HD, also not detected). - (several times:) Detect Harddrive in BIOS, it doesn't find any harddisks - Internally: Checked seating of processor, boards, RAM, IDE sockets etc. Does anyone have an idea what it could be ? I'm hoping that the 3 days "rest" for it to start up again may be a clue to someone - that's what made me suspect the battery, but the battery is now a new one and the HD is still not being detected). The 1,44 floppy and the CD drive are being detected ok. Many thanks for all and any suggestions. Dane

Sounds like the mainboard died (is dieing) or the CPU.

A mainboard dieing in 3 day intervals ??? I think it maybe the power supply but it's a very strange problem if you ask me. If you have a power supply at hand try that instead and see what happens!

A power supply dying in 3 day intervals? :-) I'll go with the mobo IDE controller. Actually I have my doubts about the 3 day thing. That sounds kinda rediculous to me.

You also could try updating the BIOS. Though, you tried a new battery so that's awkward. I may agree with Dan that it could be the mobo IDE controller. I do not think it would be the processor. It may be the motherboard itself, as well. Powersupply is a possibility but unlikely given the other facts in his scenario. ~ Lock.