Point taken SD, just allowing for some possibilities.
Seems like a USB problem, BIOS happy enough with USB1 but haveing problems with USB2. I note in a previous post there was this link
http://forums.viaarena.com/messagevi...&enterthread=y a bit complicated but seems to suggest that xp doesnt recognise the USB2 as USB2 when using a PCI usb2 card, the work around is to disable or remove anything usb 1 and then re install usb2 , ... I think ... I haven't examined it too closely but it seems related.
Rick