You can swap out the bios chips while the system is running. It is called "Hot Swapping" or "Hot Flashing". This allows you to "revive" a dead bios chip by putting the dead chip in to an already running system and flashing the dead chip. Check out http://www.cybertechhelp.com/tutorial/article/what-is-hot-swapping-the-bios (http://tinyurl.com/apmev ) (a random site from a Google Search) or run your own search on Google for more info. With that said... Hot-swapping the bios chip is NOT an affair to be taken lightly. It can damage and/or destroy your motherboad on either system involved very easily. I would NOT recommend it. Tony Mayer >No you can't pull the chip with the system running. Well you can however, >you may fry the board. All components are replaced with the system off and >unplugged. TO replace a component such as a BIOS chip or memory would cause >a spark going in either direction. Out of in. In the past when I was new at >this game I used to unplug and plug the power connection to the hard drive. >That was before I learned you can't do that. I fried several drives that >way. Shorted out the drive motor and cooked the board. Be safe and shut down >the system. > >Sincerely, > >Frank Suszka >netTek Computers >[log in to unmask] Visit our website regularly for FAQs, articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more http://freepctech.com