>what next???? <

None from me at the moment, Kara, except to say I think you've confirmed which types of trouble you have.

Hope you get it working soon. It looks as if it should be nice unit.

Oh just one, are there other devices like another sound card you could try disabling? Also, someone may be able to tell you, I don't know off hand, but there is some system info on Win that can show you what interrupts there are. I guess it could be a conflict somewhere.