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Homebrew: Pop the bad boy open, take a look at the motherboard and get the name and numbers off it. Get online (wait a tic, you already are, duh)... search for FLASH BIOS and the name and numbers you have. D/L the proggie, usually it will make a system boot disk, boot on that disk, and run it. And pray.

Shiny Store Bought Computer: look online, find the model on the manufacturers site, look for flash bios for that model of computer. D/L the proggie, follow the instructions, and pray.

But it could be two other things. One, the boot sector. In which case... clean install with Low level formatting, backing up, etc.

but another poster reminded me of a problem I had with a 2k box... and that was the APM (i think it is called that). Anyway, it is a service in the Computer Management section I belive called "Automated Power Management". Double click on that, choose disabled (if i remember right). Some other poster needs to fill in and verify the details of this last step.

But you'll need SP2 too anyway, regardless of anything else. Might as well use windows update to go and get it. But i kinda doubt that wil fix it unless SP2 fixes that APM bug somehow. Not for sure on that.

How exactly do I do that?

Determine the manufacturer of the board and go to their website and check for a BIOS update. But I would check and see if SP2 doesn't fix your problem first. BIOS flashing isn't for the faint of heart. And do a backup before flashing. Also check to see if you can find a utility that will back up your current BIOS to a floppy. Good luck and Merry Christmas!