=NukeBlaze=

i would say power, heat, etc. But there is also a matter of power management and drivers, especially video drivers. If the BIOS power management is set incorrectly, Standby can put your computer into a coma, screen saver could send brimstone of blue hell, and all of the TV specials would be cancled. Well...maybe not that far, but ti can be pretty bad. I would jump into to see if ACPI 2.0 is at least enbled, and all other power bios functions are "disabled" if they are by default. PLEASE MAKE SURE ALL OF YOUR IDE DRIVE JUMPERS AND DRIVE POSITIONS ARE PLUG INTO THE CORRECT POSITION OR YOU WILL HAVE SYSTEM STABLITY PROBLEMS. The end of the cable is master only. So, don;t set the end of the IDE cable as slave with the jumper and hope for the best. Also, if you have a single drive on an IDE cable, make sure it is on the end connector and set for Cable select "CS".

The problem is that the Athlon-xp does not have a built in thermal diode, so it has to rely on the motherboard to determine the temp with its diodes. On my Athlon 64 board, there was a problem with incorrect reporting of the temp, but mind was a bit diffrent than yours. I reccomend searching around google to see if anyone else has had temp reporting problems with your board, and I also believe that they used a thermal pad between your heatsink and CPU. I reccomend a re-application and re-seating of your heatsink with proper thermal paste. DON'T CRACK THE CORE! Even pressure and don't force.

First things first. What was your old graphics solution? I reccomend removing graphic components with this, especially if the old one was Nvidia : ww.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Uninstallers/Driver-Cleaner-Professional.shtml Right-click on my computer and click on properties. Jump onto the "hardware" tab and click on the "Device Manager" button. I want you to expand the section that may have a yellow " ! " , and I want you to expand both display adapter, and the system devices tab. Take a snapshot and post it here when everything is expanded. I also want you click on start/Run/ Type in "dxdiag" If it asks if you want to scan for signed drivers, tell it NO. Navigate to the "display" tab and take a snapshot. Also, press the buttons to test Direct3d and report results. If everything fails, windows reinstall is not uncommon...and it never will be. Make sure you are running the windows XP SP2 update.

Anytime you get problems like that with that frequency, you should alwasy run the diagnotic tools in advanced from the HDD manufature. Some have to boot from disk, or you can just get the ultiment boot CD which has everything in a nice package. If nothing, you shuld be suspicious of the IDE cable, Driver and finally the IDE/ATA controller. Nfore4 has been know to have some HDD data corruption problems, I suggest you cross reference your motherboard on google to see if it has croped up elsewhere. With IDE, one bad or crappy device can screw up the entire system and place it in a condition I call "miserable".

Fetchez la vache. Quoi? Fetchez la vache! Mooo! Ultra low temps can sometimes make bad sectored HDDs readable/ The platic bag keeps frost out.

If you had dial up, you are going to have to blow those settings out and reconfigure for Broadband in Internet Explorer. Norton is the bane of computing...please use anything else...they just work better. Avast, blackice, sygate, AVG, Zonealarm, AntiVir , anything!!

Well, since I have no idea what is going on , I am going to fill in the blanks. Drive So and So is dead/ I assume that the Computer is not even recognising it as a HDD? Seagate offers data restoration...but it can get pricy. If it is just a bit "twitchy" , you can always try the plastic bag and freeze trick.

You guys don't have newegg, I am sad for you. Fear not! They will be around some point in time. Take a plane to the US with 1000 pounds(No not bombs), and buy a desktop or laptop.

Well...I definetly would run a diagnostic from your HDD manufature to make sure the drive is in proper working order. Wester Digital has thier datalifeguard that can run an advanced test in windows, as well as seagate has seatools. Check your manufature and go to thier download page and grab it. Run the extended test, not the basic one! If that still works your parition might be garbage, run the full scan disk, and if worse to worse, zero fill the HDD and format. If you want a break down of anything, just ask.

No one uses windows defender, the update to M$Antispyware?!? ww.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx add an "w" Although it sounds like crap, because it from M$, it work quite well and has some real time protection, unlike the Ad-aware free edition. It also scan and reomves items well and can be set to autoscan whenever you want. highly reccomended. Note: Those of you with "special" copies of windows XP cannot use it...unless you find the modded Windows Genuine Advantage .dll file...But you don't know that.

I still like Avast better. Both AVG and avast scan well, but Avast's resident shield and internet shield are oh so much better than AVG/ As far as the norton removal tool, the web page one can screw up... The stand alone can be found here::: ttp://majorgeeks.com/Norton_Removal_Tool_SymNRT_d4749.html add an "h"

I'd reccomend making sure you had ethernet line rated for gigabit speeds then (cat6), as well as equpitment. It will not matter if you want to stream data across ultra fast and are running only 10/100 network. A single harddisk can generate between 30-52 or so MB/s, looking at theoretical cable bandwith::: 10 Mbit : 1.25 MB/s 100Mbit : 12.5 MB/s 1000Mbit : 125 MB/s 10/100 is still "fast", but if you want to be quite fast, I reccomend a gigabit network.

Add together all retail prices on equiptment, look on invoice, then configure a system at dell with simmilar specifications. Add your system price, and the dell price together and divide by two. Go to ebay and place a cheaper than it is worth bid. Make sure you tell them windows is fresh and that they are getting the offical windows key and CD.