Hi Gary, if I remember correctly, I experienced this very same thing on my daughters old 486. following the suggestion of some one on this list, a new CMOS battery was the cure. This may work for you as well. Made sense since the battery was err, about 7 years old! Brad Loomis Los Angeles, CA An old 486 system I have recently started leaving messages when booting up. It stated "HDD Controller Error, press F1 to resume". Hitting F1 worked a few times and I was able to get into the system but eventually, it well and truly died and I could not get access to the hard drive. Any other suggestions you might offer? PCBUILD's List Owner's: Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]> Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>