Whatever it was Fernando it's not there anymore. I have removed the Vista pre-install on the system and replaced it with another Version of Vista. Your advice worked fine and I managed to sort a working slipstreamed XP. You are a real star! Thank you very much for the help. Now the bad news, after all that, I had so many problems trying to install the drivers to the XP partition I finally got the ethernet working when my DVD driver disappeared. I need the system for work so I decided to take a raincheck on my DualBoot fantasy. I'll try another day when I have about a month to spare :-] Anyway Fernando, keep up your excellent work here you are a true credit to the site. Thanks BV