it could be that for some reason, your usb sound subsystem is failing to start until later in the boot process... usb sound has always seemed a bit flakey to me. i would snoop around the console in the system.log to see if you can find messages regarding the usb sound failing to start, or having to be restarted frequently. do you have normal sound operation during normal operation? On Feb 24, 2004, at 7:35 AM, R. LeManuel Cato wrote: > What could be the prognoses?