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>It sounds to me like the owner got burglarized all right, and you bought it >from the burglar, who picked up the "juicy" looking component, (which was >probabaly plugged into the wall at the time, hence no battery), and the >drive which was next to it. > Yeah, that occurred to me too, except I wouldn't expect the burglar to be so gregarious on the phone, willing to stay in contact for a couple of months, and give me his home address and phone number (which, admittedly I haven't checked on lately, but was valid), and generally leave such an obvious paper-trail back to himself. IBM tells me the machine was manufactured in Guatamala. The model number on the bottom indicates a non-US origin and setup. Enough stuff agrees with his story that I think my theory is correct. >Unfortunate. Let us know what happens. I will. The first step involves tools. ;^) I started taking the covers off a week ago but then stopped myself because there was still a chance they'd honor the warranty. In a way, this is the fun route. When you have a warranty you never poke around inside for fear of voiding it. It's also the frustrating route since I have no idea if I can get it to work without spending lots of $$$$. A year ago I was in almost exactly the same boat with an AST Explorer, except that one was never under warranty while I owned it. AST wanted $1250 for a replacement system board, and they wouldn't sell me service information either (not what I needed--schematics. I got a manual which told me what connectors plugged into what jacks for $50). I ended up reverse engineering the schematic of the bad section myself and doing more surface mount soldering than I ever expected to do, but I fixed it. It can be done. I really didn't want to have to do that again, but it can be done. Later, Jim L -- James Lewczyk, Software Engineer 1-970-223-5100 x9471 Symbios Logic, Inc At work: jim.lewczyk@Symbios.com Fort Collins, CO At home: jlewczyk@csn.org