HELP - Troubleshooting Lockup Problem

I recently built a home theatre PC from my old office computer. Here are the specs. Sorry I don't have models for everything I'm doing this from memory right now:

Mobo: Intel D865PERL socket 478
CPU: Intel P4 @ 2.6 GHZ
Ram: 2 x 512MB Kingston Value Ram
Hard Drive: 160 GB IDE
Tv Tuner Card: Haupaugge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE
Video Card: ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 AGP
Optical Drive: BENQ DVD+/- R/W Drive
Case: ANTEC Overture II Quiet Media Case w/ 450W SmartPower 2.0 PSU
O/S: Windows XP Media Center Edtition 2005 with all latest patches and rollups

Since I put it together I have been having some trouble with it just locking up. The picture will just freeze or go to a black screen. It's fine when I reboot. It usually hangs up when I'm not using it but the machine is just sitting waiting to record something. It locks up less frequently it I always put it into standby when not using it. It also rarely locks up when I am using it.

I recently took it all apart and cleaned everything out really well. When I put it back together I thought the issue was resolved but it started about a week later again. I don't think the CPU is overheating as I installed Intel's Active monitor and the CPU is staying fairly cool and the alert history has never shown a temperture which triggered an alarm.

My gut feeling is that my video card is either faulty or overheating as I have always had some trouble with this card. Is there anyway to tell if a computer has rebooted because the video card has overheated?

 

you can try to turn off rebooting after an error, but it may not help, cause your comp is freezing.
1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings to open the Startup and Recovery dialog box.
4. Clear the Automatically restart check box, and click OK the necessary number of times.
5. Restart your computer for the settings to take effect

but in the case of overheated video card, i dont think this will help.

 

Thanks but it isn't rebooting when it locks up. It just hangs.

 

did you get the newest drivers for all of your cards from their manufacturers?

 

Yes. All drivers are up to date with the exception of the BIOS, however I don't think a BIOS update would cure this.

 

no not likely. It sounds like a driver hanging problem. If it were me I would start out in safe mode and let it sit there. see if anything happens. You can also download something like everest and I think (don't quote me on this) that it can tell you temps including the vid card. There are also programs that allow you to stress test hardware.