[oneson2k]

Ok...problem solved.

As posted in another thread...I had the Athlon X2 drivers (1.2.2 from AMD) installed. After I uninstalled them (via a complete reformat of my C: drive) everything works fine.

I'm guessing if you go into the control panel and choose "add/remove programs" you'll find you have the "athlon x2" driver in there. However, don't bother unistalling it from the control panel because it won't work. You'll either have to a.) reformat your entire hard drive, or b.) use a system restore point (if enabled) to roll your pc back to before the x2 driver installation.

Give it a whirl and see if it makes a difference. It COMPLETELY solved the problem for me.