tried turning off the DMA on the dvd drive and still not working. i was expecting the drive to read faster, but it actually maxed at about 5.1/sec, but went as low as 1.0 therebouts. still with the same strange wall i hit before at 44%

again, and i can't say this enough.

THANK YOU ALL for your attempts to help me!!!

i'll let you know what happens on my brothers machine, that way if anyone else runs into problems we'll be in the know next time!

thanks,

lane