Computer crashing in games

[tbutcher80]

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 tried a fresh format over the weekend and it ran solid and stable until I tried to run games.

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

 

[Liquidlen]

Welcome to Techspot!
Try the Asus website for a BIOS update.Read the version's notes to see if anything relates to your hardware/software.It's always best to flash only if there is a direct issue.

 

[tbutcher80]

I checked the asus website. The latest bios revision is november of 04 and it doesn't seem to address any of my issues. I might have even flashed it last year. I have to check. I was going to flash it anyway but there might not be a point. Thanks for the welcome. I am pulling my hair out with this!

 

[Liquidlen]

I think the obvious is the Vid card ,can you try another brand ?
I also think a Ram test maybe in order.

 

[tbutcher80]

Well, it was doing this a while ago so I used a new geforce 4 ti4200. Still does it so I don't really think its that. I ran prime95 for a day to see if it might be the cpu or heat, but it ran like a champ. I haven't run memtest so I will try and do that tonight.

I used to have 512 megs of ram but I recently upgraded to 1.5 gigs. 2 more 512 sticks. It was running fine for a few weeks with the new ram, so maybe it has something to do with that.

 

[Liquidlen]

I see you tried a new card but same brand ,just curious to see if another Brand made a difference since you said it ran fine with satandard windows drivers.