> On 8/8/06, colin at ccsisupport dot com <colin at ccsisupport dot com> wrote:
>>
>> 1) The machine hangs as soon as the OS is unloaded, and never reboots.
>> This seems to be a pretty common problem with the Deskpros, and is
>> easily
>> worked around by power-cycling the machine.
>>
>
> Check for any BIOS upgrades, and make sure plug and play OS or similar
> settings in the BIOS are set to disable.  Also disable anything in the
> BIOS that you aren't using (parallel ports, serial ports, etc.).

Already done. The Compaq BIOS is a moose of a different flavour, but I've
shut off the autodetect features and the power management stuff completely.
I suspect this is just a 'thing to deal with' as long as I have these
lousy (but free!) computers.

>> 2) On boot, the NICs do not come up on the network. In order to get the
>> LAN NIC working, I have to reassign the NIC to the LAN. After that it's
>> fine until the next reboot.
>
> This is a floppy disk or drive problem.  The floppy needs to be FAT
> formatted, and inserted in the drive (obviously).

Oh yeah, I should have mentioned that this isn't a floppy or drive problem.
:-) The data gets written to floppy - I can read through the XML without
a problem. It also loads it on boot, but doesn't actually make the network
cards 'live' until I reassign the card to the interface.

Thanks, though. More information a-coming.