I can well imagine the problems you encounter working on these things,I dont envy your job but I must say without help from techs like you guys there would be a lot of people on this forum that would have broken machines all over the place sitting around doing nothing but gathering dust.I have been very lucky over the years keeping this machine running,but most issues have been reasonably simple and almost all have been revolving around the power supply and board seating,although the spindel drive had to be sent back to the states to be repaired with a battery change.Im going to have a bit more of a look at this board but I will give you the board number so i can get a idea what seimens will charge the part number is 3-424-2168A02 just a thought this would have nothing to do with the board loosing a part of its BIOS would it.If I haven't already said it thanks again for all your help,cheers Greg.