Bassdude. Rebuilding the system isnt an option for me right now, but I appreciate what you are saying. This problem occurred on a completely "new system". ie, brand new parts, MB, chip, memory, hd, vga etc. and it was a fresh install of XP pro too. Also, see Malascopes post ref clean systems.... big thanks for your interest and suggestion though.
Astroman, thanks for your post, I hope its a software thing too
Malascope, thanks for the thought dude. We'll crack it in the end, keep me updated on anything that seems to affect it, I will post here anything that I find makes a difference.
Valis, Thanks for the post, but sorry to say I am none the wiser for your description

I appreciate that drivers for hardware have changed over the years...but I dont understand the way you are relating this to soundforge. On V5 the only reference to drivers I can find is the wave settings in the preferences page. (see attached jpg) is this what you mean. As I understand things, Soundforge, being software, uses the drivers of the hardware, in this case Scope, to utilise it's inputs and outputs. Ref Direct sound, to quote the Scope manual " There is no Direct Sound dest module, as this interface is defined as unidirectional. Communication is possible from a Direct Sound source to the SCOPE Fusion Platform, but not the other way." Ummh, so I don't think I am getting your point .
Particularly with XP, the system simply should not require a great deal of tweaking to get it to operate. In my experience things only get tricky when trying to use multiple cards from different manufacturers. With a clean install of OS, Scope and Soundforge it should be minimall effort to achieve a working (though not neccesarily reliable) DAW. My first card, Pulsar 1, installed like a dream on to a P3 450mhz running win98se without issues...I have followed the PC upgrade path intermittently, swapping to AMD for a while and never experienced any problems with a lone Pulsar. Can you try explaining it a different way as I could have a gap in my understanding of things.
Garyb, I am presuming you havent come across this issue with your DAW builds, is that right? I ask because everything seems to point to an issue with latest generation boards/chipsets....and you seem to be the guy on this forum with a lot of experience of current DAW builds in particular. Any further ideas would be appreciated. Can you point me to any URL's that explain the finer points of digital sync?
Thanks again to all that have posted on this thread and particularly Planet Z for providing this fine service for us all.