Oh, another thing that points to some sort of disk I/O issue; on start up, the Sony DVD burner I have on IDE 2, for lack of a better term, ratchets. It sounds as if either the head is running against a stop, or the spindle solenoid is popping. As soon as the BIOS initializes, it stops, but during that brief time when the video is initializing and th memory is running POST, it acts like it is getting very incompatible signals... (shrug)