Yuck, USB speakers. Run away. Bloom, I'm sure his Precision Pro is also USB so there could be an issue there. You don't have a USB modem or DSL device do you Sturm? That would likely cause you problems in combination with the speakers.
BTW, don't believe device manager. It's not IRQ "conflicts" you are looking for, it's IRQ sharing. Device manager won't report IRQ conflicts on PCI devices, since it assumes they can share IRQ's properly. Fire up System Information from the Accessories|System Tools directory. It will give you a nice IRQ report. In modern machines, it is almost impossible to have one that doesn't have shared IRQ's, the trick is to save a few for certain devices like sound, video, and network/modem so they can exist on their own.
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Sean "Lephturn" Conrad - Aces High Chief Trainer
A proud member of the mighty Flying Pigs
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