No solution here, but I think I had the same problem that you had, well, at least the same symptoms. I think it had something to do with the heat, cause it would work for 30 minutes or so, then the jumbled digital output would screech and distort. That was in the summer, I ended up recrimping the IDE cable, and it has worked perfectly ever since. Alot of the members here insisted on replacing the hard disk, but I figured I'd open her up and try recrimping the cable first. Saved some cash, I guess.