[thedolphindude]

Oh good lord, I can't tell you how much I hate Nero essentials. To make things short, it left so many registry entries upon uninstall that autorun believes it's still installed...
But using BurnCDCC I got the disk done right, and memtest+ didn't find any errors. I guess it's down to the power supply. I'm definitely in the clear on wattage, and a quick check of the manual showed that my PSU could put out 45 amps on the +12V rail, when the minimum for my card is 22. If tit's the power supply, then I've gotten two faulty ones in a row and will DEFINITELY be buying from a different brand for the next go-around instead of invoking warranty. The power button is also fine. Before I set my sights on a new power supply: could bad drivers possibly be the cause? A few posts back I mentioned my network card hving no 64-bit drivers. I want to explore every possible option...