Hi Same error, same conditions, Fedora core 4. Then lost control of keyboard ... .. could this be a virus using the recently identified hole in Firefox to download code to reprogram the flash rom? The alternative is a static spike which fried a whole lot of disparate systems .. would a hdd failure be consistant with being able to read to grub stage 2.? hopefully just corrupted the flash rom.. which might also be consistant with a wide range of disparate symptoms. I have a hdd partitioned for windows 98 and linux .. I could not get past the grub stage 2 phase .. and the keyboard would not respond to trying to "del" during boot to access the cmos ... so I reset the cmos on the motherboard (perhaps in retrospect ill advisedly ... it now gives a keyboard read error ..) if it is a fried motherboard .. does anyone have a k7s6a elite surplus/sale? It was thepccompany .. which of course is no longer! I'll have to pull it apart to see what processor and memory type it is .. unless someone knows. I have downloaded the firmware upgrade and plan to extract the flash rom and reprogram it in an eprom burner (if I can find one which suits the flash device en29f002t/5v challanging .. and frustrating symptoms! (I suppose it reflects crappy component tolerances .. maybe we should all buy pentioned servers as the engineering in these is a bit better) any new info appreciated Thanks Stephen