You haven't tweaked or overclocked your FSB settings have you?
On many MBs overclocking even a minute amount (On Intels P4s you can increase the FSB speed quite a lot above defaults) can lead to inconsistent j/stick settings at each boot, as the FSB if not set and locked to the default timings and will vary very slightly each time you start the PC.
On my Sis based MB one can use a manufacturers utility for overclocking the FSB either manually or automatically to find the maximum increase, but I found that it screwed up the j/stick timings at every boot, requiring re-calibration each time, even if this was only a small increase in FSB speed. Nothing else was affected on mine except the j/stick and rudder calibration. In fact the only way I found to correct it, was to clear the cmos using the clear cmos jumper, and reset so that it used the default timings again even if it was slightly slower. No problem thereafter. Just a thought
Conclusion: don't overclock
Get a faster rated CPU instead!
