Computer crashing in games

[Atvar]

First here is my basic setup:
Asus A7v333 Motherboard
Athlon XP 2100+
GeForce 4 TI 4200
1.5 gigs of Crucial xms PC2700 (3x512)
Windows XP Pro

This has been something that has been off and on but lately has gotten much worse. Basically, when I try to load a game, I lose video. Monitor light turns orange. Once that happens, my computer won't boot. It turns on but there is no video. If I let it sit, usually overnight, it will boot again, but crash the same way when windows loads. I have to reboot it, enter safe mode and remove the NVIDIA drivers. Then I can boot as much as I want. Once I reinstall the drivers, it gets crazy again. I have tried different versions of Forceware but am currently trying the latest. I should also mention that once the computer finally boots after sitting for a while, it will dump me into the bios with a warning about the frequency settings and multiplier of my cpu. I am not overclocking and have never tried to. I just have them set to auto detect and the speed is correct, 1.7 ghz.

I have tried a different TI4200 and the same thing happens. It was working fine until about 3 weeks ago. Now it is horrible. I didn't add anything new to the system and didn't install any new or different software. I have no idea what is going on. All I can think is maybe the motherboard is just shot. Any advice would be very helpful. Thanks

 

[ronach]

Crucial ram in my experience needs a lil more voltage than the stock AUTO setting for stability. Go into the bios and crank it up .2 volts, this has worked for me in the past.

note: [ .2 v ] is all that should be required, then set your sys up again. Good luck.

 

[Atvar]

I'll give that a shot tonight when I get home from work. I don't recall seeing a setting in my bios for that, but I could have overlooked it. Any idea where it would be?

 

[Atvar]

Ok, it doesn't seem that my motherboard has the option to change the voltage of the ram. Any other ideas?

 

[flightlesscake]

This might seem extreme but try only using 2 sticks instead of 3

 

[Atvar]

I'll give that a shot when I get home. I am willing to try anything at this point lol

 

[Fern]

I suspect the PSU. Put Motherboard Monitor 5 on there and monitor voltages etc. Use the "sys log" feature and have it recorded to a text doc. Or bring up the dashboard and run P95 and see if the rails flucuate

Or, just try another PSU if you can.

Fern