I wasn't counting SA as 3rd world

MS is only supporting 95/98/ME for 3rd world countries cos with them being poorer they can only really afford those in bulk. So Ed will have to upgrade or move to Zambia.

better pack a jumbo can of bug spray

And some mosquito netting .

Taw said:

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So Ed will have to upgrade or move to Zambia.

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Zambia, not having had a civil war, would not be such a bad deal. But as yon Antipodean Rabbit Horse so nicely pointed out, there are mosquitos there.

Anyway, if makes you all happy, I am resigned to moving to a newer WinOS when
I am able to upgrade my hardware to the latest technologies.

I don't see the point in flashing my BIOS just to install XP when I have not had a problem with my Me installation. The only recent crashes I have had have been prepetrated by IE 6.x (no longer my default browser), buggy Mods I have tried out on FL or bugs in Mods I have created by being over ambitious with may hacks.

Only IE has crashed my system. My FL crashes are purely single app game crashes.

Why do you have to flash your BIOS to support XP, Ed?

Dell is not known for confessing to any problems but I have learned to follow their advice on BIOS and update whenever called for.

The technical support pages at Dell all say the same thing, if I upgrade to XP, I should flash my BIOS to be XP optimized. I am guessing that this may have something to do with memory addressing. Don't know.

Here's all Dell will tell me.

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This version of BIOS (XP2) is recommended for systems with Microsoft XP. For other operating systems, please use version A09, file name 8100_A09.EXE or B8100_09.exe. The following changes have been made to the XP1 BIOS to create XP2: 1. Change the code from stuffing the keyboard buffer to setting a CMOS bit for Access Direct.

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Great, another reason not to by brandname PCs!

The BIOS updates CAN smooth out bugs, but they aren't always necessary. Just ask Taw; he wouldn't flash a BIOS if his life depended on it.

well not entirely true, most times it isn't necessary or even recommended, but sometimes it fixes certain problems, I've done it twice this year for specific incompatibilities, but I wouldn't have thought you'd need to flash a bios to make an o/s work. it's usually only required for specific features that might be problematic in the new os, like RAID or Firewire or power regulation, stuff like that.

Mmm, I have heard that XP likes some types of newer BIOSes, but I don't remember them being mandatory.