Constant AVRDUDE error - suddenly nothing works!! HELP!!

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

Hello.

I have an arduino duemilanove that I have been using for some time, connected to my laptop, always on the same USB port (my mouse is hooked to the alternate USB port).

I went to upload a sketch yesterday after not using the arduino for about a month or so and I keep getting the same error message:

avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00
avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x51

I tried disconnecting, reconnecting, restarting the computer, using the other USB port, reburning the bootloader, I even popped out the 328 and put a new 328 in its place (trying to burn a bootloader to that too). Nothing works. I have burned the bootloader to dozens of chips over the years and worked on hundreds of sketches with various errors.... but I have never had an error like this where nothing at all works.

Can anyone provide some insight please???

THANKS!

-Dave

2

...Just as an update, I uninstalled the FTDI driver thinking that might be the issue and downloaded the new updated system from:
http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

I now have a newly updated FTDI system in place, but the same AVRDUDE errors still persist no matter what I try to do.

3

Does the board pass or fail a loop-back test...
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,73748.0.html