windows xp trouble, some help please!

[Kill_Phil]

I am having some issues with windows xp at the moment. whenever i try to install my ati catalyst drivers, they freeze the whole machine. also, if i try to load into the administrator or my gf's profiles, the machine freezes.. my profile works luckily. and by freeze, i mean it first haults doing whatever the task is, only the mouse works for about 30 seconds after that, then it stops working and i cant change the status of the numlock on the keyboard (hard lock).

I just put a new amd xp 2000+ in an epox 8k7a motherboard, it worked fine for a month with no problems on a fresh install of xp. then I had a problem with the power switch in the case, so i fixed that and I rebuilt the system again to find it had a bad stick of ram (found that out after pulling out some hair). Memtest86 found the error for me, and also proved that the other stick works fine, which im running with now. so, i reinstalled windows and everything seemed fine until i ran into the problems in the first paragraph.

I am wondering if this could be a problem with my ati radeon 8500LE. because when i installed windows, i was using a geforce 2 mx 400, and i didn't see any problems until i put the radeon in. However, I would rather use the radeon as its quite a bit better than the geforce.

well, any ideas or suggestions, here are all my system specifications that i can think of

cpu: AMD XP 2000+ (stock cooling with artcic silver 2)
mobo: EPOX 8K7A (amd768 northbridge, via southbridge, onboard sound) - and xp 2000+ is one of the supported chips, also using the latest bios...
psu: 350watt (worked with my amd tbird 1400 @ 1500, so i assume it can handle a xp 2000+)
cd rom: 8x cdrw
hdd: wd 20 gig
hdd: wd 40 gig
hdd: wd 60 gig
nic: dlink dfe538tx
using the latest amd agp drivers
agp 4x in bios
fastwrites disabled in bios
using the latest via 4in1 drivers
windows xp sp1 & all critical updates, as well as driver updates
dx9 installed

Thanks

 

[Kill_Phil]

just an update to my thread, sometimes my computer will hard lock and then make a pc speaker beep type noise, except it comes through my speakers... I still have no clue what is going on with this thing, I cant make any sence of it

 

[Kill_Phil]

well the geforce2mx400 is back in now, and no lock ups so far, would really suck if my ati card has gone down the poop chute, its maybe 4 months old

still, if anybody has any ideas of what I can try, or prior expirences with something like this, please lemme know =)

 

[Kill_Phil]

alright, figured out a way to install the drivers for my radeon (used some drivers that were previously extracted) installed those, got a hang and a beep again (im gonna name it the beep of death). I think signs are pointing to my radeon, any ideas, gonna go check out some ati websites for faq's or help =)

 

[Kill_Phil]

well after the driver install i dont seem to be having any more trouble...