Epilogue:
Well, things went from bad to worse and I finally gave up on that Slug…
Out of sheer mania to get things right, (and maybe lack of sleep) I went down to the local Comp Usa, dropped a C Note on another slug and tried again… very carefully…
Would you believe…..
Less then one hour start to finish.. running like a charm.
I unslung to port 1 (memory stick) and then when everything looked good I formatted the HDD on port 2.
FF latest nightly running great.. transferring a bunch of music to the HDD.
Thank you all for your help…You actually gave me a lot of good tips and advice.
If anyone wants a new de-underclocked Slug…which has problems, but may not yet be a total brick, I am willing to give it up for a very reasonable price 😀
Dave