Robert --- I wonder if your problem is related to the one I posted yesterday (advice for the mechanically declined). I have a Mandrake 8.1 install and a USR 5610 and I have had some anomalous results in my start-up. Never had this before upgrading to Mandrake 8.1 from RH 6.2. Please see my earlier message. Have you looked at what dmesg prints? I'd be interested to see if you have the same problem. Best, R