Thanks for the ideas.I think the recovery disk would work if I could get the machine to see the Usb cd-rom.It does'nt show up in the bios at start up.In bios Im offered to start with:atapi cd,removable drive,or hard drive.Nothing about a USB connection
.The machine just wont see the USB attached cd-rom.Again,the cd-rom works well when pluged into a good running machine so no problem found with the rom itself.I think we'll try getting a cd-rom that works off the card bus slot and see if that works for us.I have my doubts but Im lost as to how to get into this machine.
Keep the thoughts coming.
thanks again,
Sp0iler