hey thanks man!

well ive been through your kind suggestions but nothing seems to work..

Re. the graphics card thing - the card is a proper fatty brand spaking new one and the powercore is firewire anyway - so it doesnt slot into a pci..

tried the onboard sound but thats definitly off..

Yep ive got the newest drivers..

Re. the powersupply.. im not sure how id check that out.. but its a brand new silent one so it should be good quality :)

the system is a p4 3.2 with 1gb ddr2, 2x200gb sata, phat graphics (forgotten what) and a digidesign digi001 soundcard.. oh and ive got windows xp home sp2 on there..
the only software installed is cubase and a few plugins plus the tc & digidesign drivers..

Cheers for your help anyway man.. hopefully someone else will have been through this allready and be able to guide me :)