Re-install questions... you win Vista... I give up!!!

So I've been reading various posts and tutorials from this website for the last couple months, and my notebook was running better for a while... but I think it's finally time to re-install vista.

I'm not sure what combonation of crazy I must have forced upon this computer but it's hardware/interrupts according to sysinternals process explorer are up over 200Million at the moment, it's sluggish and slow again, and when I tried a system restore from startup recovery (and from within windows) I got an error saying it couldn't finish. Now I'm thinking I've really angered it.

I rollbacked all the drivers, didn't help. Now I'm thinking might as well go for a clean start since I have everything important backed up an on external drive. (another fun driver issue, in program files, my Nvidia folder has another Nvidia folder inside it with all the same dlls and info to the letter, so the folder is like 4Gbs? whats up with that?)

My machine has a recovery drive because it is an OEM installation of vista. I've got a recovery CD next to me, just had a couple questions before I took the plunge:

When I re-install, will my recovery drive still be there? Or is that what the CD will access to re-install the system?

Also, I'm going to install a linux OS alongside vista (after trying it out from a live boot usb), and it's going to be a 64bit OS. Do I need to get 64bit drivers for that system?

Is there a way I can upgrade to a 64bit windows system? My computer is 64bit capable, and I'd like the performance boost since I'm upgrading my ram within the next few weeks.

Last question (i think haha): I split my time between Baja California Mexico, and California. I'm currently in baja, if I re-install down here, will windows have an issue with my product ID or anything like that?

Sorry if this is a bit jumbled... Vista has got my brain fried). Thanks in advance for your help!

TooCurious

It sounds like your computer may have hardware issues. If so a reinstall won't help.
There is no upgrade path from a 32 bit to 64 bit OS so it would need to be a clean install, including installing all applications. A 64 bit OS must use 64 bit drivers exclusively. There is no provision for the use of 32 bit drivers.

toocurious said:

I rollbacked all the drivers, didn't help. Now I'm thinking might as well go for a clean start since I have everything important backed up an on external drive. (another fun driver issue, in program files, my Nvidia folder has another Nvidia folder inside it with all the same dlls and info to the letter, so the folder is like 4Gbs? whats up with that?)

Click to expand...

Those are the driver downloads before it installks. They're there so you can roll back. They can be deleted

toocurious said:

My machine has a recovery drive because it is an OEM installation of vista. I've got a recovery CD next to me, just had a couple questions before I took the plunge:

When I re-install, will my recovery drive still be there? Or is that what the CD will access to re-install the system?

Click to expand...

You files under your profile, Documents, Picturdes etc folders will stay, unless you do a format and reinstall

toocurious said:

Also, I'm going to install a linux OS alongside vista (after trying it out from a live boot usb), and it's going to be a 64bit OS. Do I need to get 64bit drivers for that system?

Click to expand...

Linux doesn't use drivers like Windows does,m just get x64 Ubuntu and 99% of hardware is setup right out of the get go even with a livecd.

toocurious said:

Is there a way I can upgrade to a 64bit windows system? My computer is 64bit capable, and I'd like the performance boost since I'm upgrading my ram within the next few weeks.

Last question (i think haha): I split my time between Baja California Mexico, and California. I'm currently in baja, if I re-install down here, will windows have an issue with my product ID or anything like that?

Sorry if this is a bit jumbled... Vista has got my brain fried). Thanks in advance for your help!

TooCurious

Click to expand...

I don't think your OEM serial key will allow you to switch to x64 bit Windows, some dobut I'd post a question or email thier support and find out.
A key doesn't matter where you liveso Mexico or US makes no difference

hey thanks for the quick responses! I went ahead and did a format/re-install. But surprise for me, windows never asked for my product ID/serial number or whether or not I wanted to change up my partitions or where i wanted to install windows... anyways, windows shows up as activated in system properties, and it bumped me back to sp1. I've been re-installing all the updates windows so desperately desires (bit by painful bit).

So far it seems like the event log is lighting up with errors:

System Boot Degredation, taking too long to start up, error codes in the event log under diagnostics performance range in event id: 108, 203, 400, 401, 402 (all warnings), and critical/error: 100/101. Could this be just a lag due to all the installations/updates that are installing right now?

The good news is I managed to finally shring the windows volume down to 70g so i can use a partition for linux..bad news i'm guessing is my computer is very, very angry with me. Any ideas?

Also, still a bit unclear as to whether or not I need specific 64bit drivers for my linux install, or if that would mess up the windows os?

Hard drive most likely going.

I'm not to sure you know all about linux, as it has absiolutely nothing to do with Windows. The 2 don't even know each is there, so anything linux doesbn't affect windows and vice versa.

i haven't received any errors about the hard drive itself in any of the tests i've run though (chkdsk, sfc /scannow, the health report, etc) all say the drive is good, smart status good, etc. Is there any other test I could run to check the health status of my hard disk?

Patonb, thanks for the linux clarification (I've had various live bootable usb drives for over a week now, just been waiting to get vista under control before actually installing one on a partition). Now I'm wondering if I should, if the drive may be going?

Read this webpage and try a program or 2 to see if you can find any issues.
7 Free Hard Drive Testing Software Tools

I'd toss in/boot up a usb live image of Linux and see if any of your issues,. besides reading error reports, happen. A live image doesn't do anything to your hard drive so its worth booting one up.

Great link, thank you! I'll be running the tests tonight.

And yeah I've been playing around with various bootable usbs just to play with (mint, ubuntu 13.10, damn small linux, etc). Just didn't know which one I'd eventually want to install more permanently.

Will post if results are catastrophic. I think my install of vista is finally done updating (70Gbs later...). Only one driver seems to have an issue, Microsoft Tun Miniport adapter #2 (relating to ipv6, i think?). Win update can't/won't find the update for it, neither will my HP update, and not sure where to go from there? Tried searching Microsoft site and just got a lot of search results in the community forums of unanswered unhappy peoples (always depressing in there...).

ermm.... So looking in device manager I noticed that after installing service pack two my originally ata port drivers are now ide device drivers in a category called ide/ata/atapi controllers? Four total, two with ultra dma mode 5 enabled, and two standard dual channel pci ice controllers.. I'm not even half sure why these changed with the sp2 update? Could this be causing some issues because my hard disk is an ata device and these drivers have changed? There is no option to restore or roll them back (and when I enabled viewing hidden devices there is no sign of the previous versions).

Also found this in sys health report under IRQ:

etcetcetc....
[TABLE="class: block, width: 1"]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_001C&SUBSYS_137A103C&REV_01\4&B224E5E&0&00A0[/TD]
[TD="class: number"]0xFFFFFFFF[/TD]
[TD="class: number, width: 8%, align: right"]20[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0AD0&SUBSYS_360A103C&REV_A2\3&2411E6FE&0&48[/TD]
[TD="class: number, width: 8%, align: right"]0xFFFFFFFF[/TD]
[TD="class: number, width: 8%, align: right"]21[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0845&SUBSYS_360A103C&REV_A2\4&105D929E&0&0058[/TD]
[TD="class: number, width: 8%, align: right"]0xFFFFFFFF[/TD]
[TD="class: number, width: 8%, align: right"]23[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]ACPI_HAL\PNP0C08\0[/TD]
[TD="class: number, width: 8%, align: right"]0xFFFFFFFF[/TD]
[TD="class: number, width: 8%, align: right"]81[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0760&SUBSYS_360A103C&REV_A2\3&2411E6FE&0&50[/TD]
[TD="class: number, width: 8%, align: right"]0x0[/TD]
[TD="class: number, width: 8%, align: right"]4294967294[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

is that last number supposed to be that large??

and looks like I'm in trouble...

[TABLE="class: block, width: 1"]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]in32_PnPEntity.DeviceID="ROOT\\LEGACY_ADP94XX\\0000"[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 100"][TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][TABLE="class: block, width: 1"]
[TR]
[TH="class: string"]Property[/TH]
[TH="class: string"]Value[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerErrorCode[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerUserConfig[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Description[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]adp94xx[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Name[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]adp94xx[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Service[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]adp94xx[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Status[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Degraded[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Win32_PnPEntity.DeviceID="ROOT\\LEGACY_ADPAHCI\\0000"[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 100"][TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][TABLE="class: block, width: 1"]
[TR]
[TH="class: string"]Property[/TH]
[TH="class: string"]Value[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerErrorCode[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerUserConfig[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Description[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]adpahci[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Name[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]adpahci[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Service[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]adpahci[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Status[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Degraded[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Win32_PnPEntity.DeviceID="ROOT\\LEGACY_ADPU160M\\0000"[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 100"][TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][TABLE="class: block, width: 1"]
[TR]
[TH="class: string"]Property[/TH]
[TH="class: string"]Value[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerErrorCode[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerUserConfig[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Description[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]adpu160m[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Name[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]adpu160m[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Service[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]adpu160m[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Status[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Degraded[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Win32_PnPEntity.DeviceID="ROOT\\LEGACY_ADPU320\\0000"[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 100"][TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][TABLE="class: block, width: 1"]
[TR]
[TH="class: string"]Property[/TH]
[TH="class: string"]Value[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerErrorCode[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerUserConfig[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Description[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]adpu320[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Name[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]adpu320[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Service[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]adpu320[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Status[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Degraded[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Win32_PnPEntity.DeviceID="ROOT\\LEGACY_AFD\\0000"[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 100"][TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][TABLE="class: block, width: 1"]
[TR]
[TH="class: string"]Property[/TH]
[TH="class: string"]Value[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerErrorCode[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerUserConfig[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Description[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Ancilliary Function Driver for Winsock[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Name[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Ancilliary Function Driver for Winsock[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Service[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]AFD[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Status[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Degraded[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Win32_PnPEntity.DeviceID="ROOT\\LEGACY_AIC78XX\\0000"[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 100"][TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][TABLE="class: block, width: 1"]
[TR]
[TH="class: string"]Property[/TH]
[TH="class: string"]Value[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerErrorCode[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerUserConfig[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Description[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]aic78xx[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Name[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]aic78xx[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Service[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]aic78xx[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Status[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Degraded[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Win32_PnPEntity.DeviceID="ROOT\\LEGACY_ALIIDE\\0000"[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 100"][TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][TABLE="class: block, width: 1"]
[TR]
[TH="class: string"]Property[/TH]
[TH="class: string"]Value[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerErrorCode[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerUserConfig[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Description[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]aliide[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Name[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]aliide[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Service[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]aliide[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Status[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Degraded[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Win32_PnPEntity.DeviceID="ROOT\\LEGACY_AMDIDE\\0000"[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 100"][TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][TABLE="class: block, width: 1"]
[TR]
[TH="class: string"]Property[/TH]
[TH="class: string"]Value[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerErrorCode[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerUserConfig[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Description[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]amdide[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Name[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]amdide[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Service[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]amdide[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Status[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Degraded[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Win32_PnPEntity.DeviceID="ROOT\\LEGACY_ARC\\0000"[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 100"][TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][TABLE="class: block, width: 1"]
[TR]
[TH="class: string"]Property[/TH]
[TH="class: string"]Value[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerErrorCode[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerUserConfig[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Description[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]arc[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Name[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]arc[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Service[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]arc[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Status[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Degraded[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Win32_PnPEntity.DeviceID="ROOT\\LEGACY_ARCSAS\\0000"[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 100"][TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][TABLE="class: block, width: 1"]
[TR]
[TH="class: string"]Property[/TH]
[TH="class: string"]Value[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerErrorCode[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerUserConfig[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Description[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]arcsas[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Name[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]arcsas[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Service[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]arcsas[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Status[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Degraded[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Win32_PnPEntity.DeviceID="ROOT\\LEGACY_BEEP\\0000"[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="colspan: 100"][TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][TABLE="class: block, width: 1"]
[TR]
[TH="class: string"]Property[/TH]
[TH="class: string"]Value[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerErrorCode[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]ConfigManagerUserConfig[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]0[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Description[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Beep[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Name[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Beep[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b2, bgcolor: #F5F5F5"]
[TD="class: string"]Service[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Beep[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD="class: string"]Status[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Degraded[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: b1"]
[TD]
[/TD]
[TD="class: string"]Win32_PnPEntity.DeviceID="ROOT\\LEGACY_CLFS\\0000"


[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


Sorry for the formatting, it's late and I can't put this monster down. I don't know how all of these became degraded without any kind of warning or flag showing up to alert me? A treasure map, doodle, anything?? Even when I'm in device manager comparing the two side by side, dev manager shows that the driver is working properly and no error codes under details tab. Ergh!

Any ideas on what to do besides going shopping for a new hard drive? Running the Seagate harddrive test for windows now, can't wait...

SP2 did stuff to the way drives read, but i don't think that'd be an issue for you.

I'm really not good with this port stuff, but I can't find even find the IRQ stuff you posted n mine.