I just got a new motherboard and processor for my crappy P2 266mhz PC. It’s a 1800 AMD Athlon XP. After spending 5 hours trying to get it in my case with my Dad and a very scary power supply problem we went to get a case. What the problem with the old power supply was, we plugged everything in and this little humming whistling sound started coming from the power supply. My Dad checked the cable coming out of the power supply and it had one pin missing. It also was giving voltage where it wasn’t supposed to be. I hope we haven’t damaged anything.
So we put everything in the new case and plugged it in. Eveything’s going fine. We take it up to me room and plug everything into the back and start it up.
It thinks it’s a 1 GB AMD Duron, while other times it thinks it’s a 1.1 GB AMD Athlon. It makes some weird noises occasionally. We booted into Windows 98 and it started detecting hardware. It needed a Windows 98 CD. We put it in and it couldn’t find the CD drive, even though the BIOS had recognized it. So we had to restart it. This time it booted into it’s correct 1024x768 resolution. Still didn’t find the CD drive. We restarted it. The moniter didn’t recognize the PC. After about 10 restarts it recognized it again. It now recognizes the CD drive but it’s back to 640x480 16 color. It installed the rest of the drivers except for three. It can’t find drivers for three different PCI and USB things. I try to run the setup thing on the CD that came with my motherboard. It crashes before it’s even started. Great. I restart my computer. Before Windows is booted up it says “Windows Protection Error Restart the Computer”. It ALWAYS says that after like 20 restarts. That’s where I am right now. It looks like I poured $150 down the drain. I hate computers.
COMPUTER UPGRADE… that’s more like a new computer!!! 
One thing though… always get a power supply that is strong enough for your system. For an Athlon XP 1800, I would recommend at least a 350 watt power supply, and a qood quality one at that.
As for your winows problems… REINSTALL IT!!!
Or better yet… PUT LINUX ON IT!!! j/k (unless you really want to )
But seriously, I think if you do a fresh install of windows, get all the latest mobo drivers, etc…, it will probably be ok. 
That’s probobly what we’re gonna do. Linux is already on it. 
My power supply is about 350 btw.
Ok for one thing, make sure you’re using a good heatsink!!! It seriously sounds like you’re having some heat issues with the crashing. If you’re using the stock HSF (heatsink/fan) that came with the Athlon, make sure you’ve used some thermal grease (I prefer arctic silver III), and FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE GREASE!!! I couldn’t stress that more!
My power supply is about 350 btw
It doesn’t matter how many watts it is unless you’re using more than one HD/CPU. The new SFF computers from Shuttle come with a 180W power supply and run absolutely stable. What you need is a QUALITY power supply. A sub-par power supply is the #1 cause of crashes (with incorrectly mounted heat sink close behind). This is part of the reason why E-machines suck so much. You can’t upgrade anything because the power isn’t clean enough to handle more energy. My recommendation is an Antec power supply. 350W is plenty for the average user.
Research here:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20021021/index.html
I’ll see. My power supply came with the case and it seems pretty good.
Unfortunately I owe my Dad $50 right now.
Right now it’s gone back to the moniter not recognizing the screen. I have rebooted it like 40 times now and it still does it. I also have to hold the power button for like 8 seconds to turn it off.
ok 8 sec turn off is a safty thing to stop people using the button and instead turn it off at the OS shutdown!!!
anyway
BUGGER why do computers cause so many problems
(i just spent 6 weeks arguing with computer companys etc… because i had so amny problems with my new computer)
Well, I wasn’t in the OS, so I couldn’t restart from there!
It was working semi-ok, occasionally we had some problems getting it to boot. Also, Blender would crash after like 20 seconds for no reason everytime.
We’re sending the motherboard back. Some people have reported problems with this motherboard at Frys (where I got it).
Dont feel bad man, i just spent a week upgrading my old comp a little while ago, and oh the troubles i had with it!!! And i had only every just changed a faulty power supply before, i have no hardware experience at all beyond plug and play!!! hehe
But now its up and running hype, and im very happy to finally see and use the game engine in Blender.
Good luck with your woes and worries!!!
Matt
Blend on, and blend well!!!
I’ll tell you what ticks me off… I’ve seen some PC manufacturers shipping with power supplies that don’t have switches. You know… sometimes the PC crashes so bad, the mobo won’t respond to the front switch, so you need one on the power supply. But nooo… I got to freaking pull out the power cable, then plug it back in.
Imp