All bets are off! I think the hard disk controller is bad and I think it is built in the motherboard so I need a new motherboard. I tried a different hard drive and cable, but get the error 1782 Hard Disk Controller Failure sometimes when I power up. I wonder if it is because I am trying to use a Seagate hard drive instead of a Compaq hard drive. I also tried a Maxtor hard drive, but nothing seems to work very well. The Seagate HD is the only one that lets me load Windows 95 without crashing, but if I power off and back on I get the HD controller failure error. I might be cheaper to toss the machine in the garbage and buy a new one rather than fighting it for hours on end. I guess a repair/replacement motherboard would be cost defective. I will never buy a Compaq PC. I wonder if that's why they have three of them sitting on the floor in the closet at work not being used by anyone?