Apparently after doing a few Google searches, it seems that SATA drives are also prone to falling into PIO mode.

Thanks for clarifying and for adding in your comments, Don and Jeff.

Great suggestion, Don.Thanks for keeping us posted.

How about trying the sample video with the montage theme? Does this render a black/blank preview?

It's meant for higher resolution images, but should work with anything higher than the standard resolution. This article talks about it.

Try this solution.

Keep it enabled and disable the onboard soundcard from the device manager. See if that removes the duplicate Audio Codec entry.

Yes, and not only for Studio alone but for the over all system boost as well. Maybe bring it up to 2GB or even 3 if the budget permits it.

When this happens to you, how would you know that the render completed?

I agree. It's a problem that I go through most of the time, I get videos from family that they want edited and burned to DVDs. The best practice that I learned over the months of going through this, especially with the release of new cameras in the market. Any video format that I have no recollection of editing in the past, I run through a test ...