What's the difference between a northbridge and southbridge chip then?
I think you answered that, and probably learnt something on the way ;-) Maybe I'm just a geek then. And why would you want to fix a CDROM drive belt when you are in contract? You wouldn't if you were in contract, but the college I worked at were out of contract for their machines and to replace something like 15 drives that had no need of replacing was pathetic; instead, I took them apart and re-attached the separated drive belts, giving them a new lease of life :-) Why would you need to know about the PCs architecture? Building them, analysing them, using them, programming for them..and so on. On every hardware course I've been on from Tresham to correspondence, the north and south bridge ICs have been mentioned..maybe you have been missing some of the fun? I don't question that some here know more than me (I know they do), or that some MCSEs have the knowledge they profess on paper (some do no doubt) I just haven't met any! Software knowledge doesn't make a rounded technician; neither does solely hardware knowledge--it's having a good combination of these and other skills that makes a marked improvement upon the time it takes to fix/install/upgrade things. The moral of the story is that the IT industry is a dynamic industry, and we all need lots of skills in many areas to even have the chance of being employable. If that means I have to take an MCSE though, I'd rather not! Paul <who can even point to a north and south bridge chip>