the reinstall came up dated to jan 1, 2002. bios date. i had to restart the process, because i can't have my system files dated that incorrectly.

but it got me thinking.

setting the clock in windows changed it in the bios, indicating these things are in sync. if the bios was corrupt, it could have been counting slightly wrong. and, that could have resulted in the whole system being out of sync, leading to the fading i was getting.

we'll have to see what happens. but i've all but ruled out a driver conflict, and i'm certain the driver clocks were installed right. yet, i was still getting what seemed like timing errors.

we'll see how this works out. but that cmos reset may turn out to be the fix.

that battery has never been replaced. it's only eight years old. but the board shipped with two. it's worth a shot if it's still bleeding.