USB works..... but rarely

Ok, so I have been messing around with this thing for a few weeks and can't seem to find a fix.

First of all.... my Wii recognizes my USB every time. I can load movies and what not off of it from WiiMC. I can even use it in Homebrew to load apps. If I use it once, I can't use it again.... Say I access an app from Homebrew Channel with my USB... that app won't recognize my USB. But it I load WiiMC from my SD, then it will let me load data from my HDD.

Now, to any and all USB loaders.... they have worked before, sometimes I can get them to load and play games. Every game I have played seems to freeze about 20 minutes in though. Now, however, whether I load them off of SD or my HDD, they either freeze at the loading screen or do not recognize my HDD.

I re-modded my Wii using mauifrogs tutorial and it worked fine for about a day. Now I am running into problems again.... Anyone have any suggestions?

Also, I have noticed people talking about running off of a different cIOS.... is it possible to change the cIOS if you cannot load the program?

There are different loader versions around like a cfg-usbloader 250 (which initially loads 250) or 249/247/248 derivats for example.
I bet on a spindown issue. Find a hdd tool from your usb hdd manufacturer and set the standby mode for your drive to "off". Needs some googling and time finding the correct tool.