Thanks Bruno,

My PC is a P4, 1500 Mhz, 512Mb. I got the latest driver from adaptec - dated 12/01, if that is not the right one let me know. Email me a link or the file if you can...

My drive is 1.5 - and that is the firmware.

When you say "mass drag to encode " are you saying drag all the files into the main AG window? Do they then get put into directories by artist and album by the encoder process? And I choose to normalize, which takes place before the encode. I can't imagine that makes a difference.

If you are ever in Boston I absolutely owe you dinner. Thanks for all your help!