i am finally convinced that i'm stable. i suspect that the problem was in fact the bios and that the perception of other fixes having an effect was probably due to these things resetting the sync, temporarily.

i think i should get most of this done by the end of the weekend.

for my own reference....

this is my workflow for the next little bit:

1) finish inri007-inri009. this should be fairly quick.
2) finish aleph-0 (period 1) dvd disc. this should be fairly quick.
3) finish remaining dvd discs. a week or two.
4) as i am finishing (3), i'll want to go through and finalize the remaining period 2 discs. similarly.
5) start on period 3. i'm well behind schedule, but this is when the next collection of big projects will begin.