It WAS the screen saver. For some reason, this broke the audio chain and the Fubar lost the clock. My BIL has run the system successfully for a number of days with no disruption after turning off the ss. thank you all!

We did NOT hear this testing with straight analog out from the MOBO - but we weren't focusing on it either. Screen saver?

Agreed bizarre problem. Fubar DAC as related above has external power supply so that's not it. He moved the USB port used around, so that isn't it. Please keep ideas coming........!

Yes, I installed and configured F2K for him and that is on the list to test as well. While iTunes Vista may not sound the same as Foo, it certainly never offered me this type of technical challenge. But we'll see if that might be it. Other ideas folks?

Bump -lots of looks but no ideas. Thanks for looking - ideas please?

All, thanks for reading this. I need some hardcore technical help/ideas to solve an issue. My brother in law and I gave our other brother in law a fully baked server system for his 40th birthday. I've been doing this stuff for a number of years (currently on Mac gear but cut my teeth on XP...

Do you consider it a major upgrade? Did you do a side by side to make your decision? thanks

Holiday weekend here in Canada and thinking about spending money. I got my Keces 151 about 18 months ago and it is a great sounding unit and have thoroughly enjoyed it, and the value for money. Question: for other owners out there, have you stuck with it or traded up. If no, why not? If yes...

folks, is there a way to get J River to play Apple Lossless files. It must be via a plug in - quick advice on how to make this work? thanks in advance.

To those wondering about the Keces 151 - owned it for several months now. I have a dedicated Vista pc running iTunes, apple lossless tunes, to the DAC, then direct to my tube amp (with nice Mullard tubes), to my B&W 602 s3 monitors. Not an expensive system, but a very solid music lovers...

I'm using a mix of lossless and lossy on the actual ipods. As addict suggests, it easy to set up what you need/want given the storage capacity today. I'm using 2 main ipods at the moment. a 40G 4th gen and a brand new 80G Classic. The 4th Gen definitely has superior sound when I use it in...

I re-did everything in ALAC - each track is about 10x the MP3 equivalent in 128. CDs are therefore in the 300-400MB range so you need a bit of storage. But, as I said, well worth it and future proof to a high degree...

You have a VERY nice home setup. Regretably, you are going to have to re-rip your collection, just like I did over the winter holidays this year. I had exactly the same scenario - a large collection of MP3s built up over time, right back to the beginning of the MP3 wave becoming mainstream...

thanks guys, I'll look for this tonight at home.... Paul

Infinite - you have it exactly right. Very unnerving indeed. Is there another help source on the 'net that you think could help me with this issue? As I said, HP no help so far. Haven't tried Realtek.... thx