yeh Scott i fixed it, reformatted the drive and put XP pro back on - problem fixed, everything back to 'normal'.

Donny, i love macs, love em to bits but it always comes down to the compatibility issue.

i am extremely fluent with Cakewalk Sonar so i prefer to use it over anything else (ie cubase, fruity pro, etc etc) but Sonar wont go on macs unless u use things like VMware (vurtualisation) which i dont want to do.

also regarding the Athlon chip Scott, that should have nothing to do with what applications can be installed on the OS. the blue screening suring initial install - yes that 'could' have been a conflict with the motherboard / processor.

as far as security goes... i dont run any anti virus. i only go to websites that are obviously not malicious. I have 2 HHDs in my machine. one has my OS and apps on it, the other has all my data / files / music / movies etc etc.

i may get a virus once a year. if i do, i reformat the drive that windows is sitting on and then re install.. the entire process of formatting, installing windows and my other apps takes no longer than 2-3 hours.

I work for an IT security company where we specialize in Anti virus and from my experience on personal home users PCs all it does is drastically slow the machine down not only on boot up but on everything in general.

if you are not stupid and take notice of what is happening on your machine the chances are u will be fine...

i recommend Antivirus to users who go to alot of porn sites, gambling, crack sites, download alot of P2P from limewire etc.

Nick