Hi I recently flashed the Bios, realised that XP then repeatedly crashed, reinstated previous Bios and everything was working fine. (I reinstated previous because I didn't have time to investigate the problem) Then, when I got more time, I flashed the bios with the updated file again, and set about trying to work out why XP kept crashing. It would get to the login screen, and then just either seize up, or blue screen me out. I changed one thing at a time so I could track what I was doing. One of the settings related to IDE / SATA. I changed that, and then the computer wouldn't even start to load XP. I tried changing things back, and it still wouldn't. So I got nervous (and tired) and reinstated the previous Bios again. However, XP still won't start! Even if I choose safe mode - the usual stream of scrolling text flies up the screen - and then the computer just hangs. Right at the point where the XP Splash usually appears. I know its a long shot, but is there a simple answer to this? I think I've gotten a little out of my depth! Any help is, as ever, greatly appreciated Tom

Why did you flash the BIOS in the first place? Were you having problems? If so, they might be related to this. Have you reset the BIOS defaults? Life is more painless for those who are brainless.

Have I killed XP? Sort of. Excerpts from this MSKB: If you update the BIOS ... you may have to reinstall XP to take advantage of features such as Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) support in the BIOS. i_XpUser

Yes - should have mentioned - was getting problems with a brand new graphics card. Thought that it might be a compatibility issue with the bios, since all other drivers were up to date. (And I noticed that I hadn't updated the bios since I built the machine in 2003) I hadn't considered reinstalling XP - thats a perfectly obvious thing to do! I'll give that a go tonight. Would you recommend I update the bios (again) first? It doesn't seem to make sense to leave it in the old version - as I'm just going to repair the computer to a point of instability if I do that? Thanks for your feedback

I never recommend updating BIOS unless the manufacturer issue it to fix something. Updating BIOS will not make the machine outperform its original design. i_XpUser

I agree 100% with XpUser.

Before reinstalling XP, you might want to consider using the recovery console: Put in the XP CD, hit R for recovery console, and then type in bootcfg, fixboot, and fixmbr. You might not need all three of those, but it worked for me when I've tried all three a couple of times when I couldn't boot into XP becasue of some changes I had made.