Computer randomly dying, need some troubleshooting advice

[kyzen]

I have a 4-5 year old computer that seems to finally be dying. I'd love if I could squeeze another 3-5 months of life out of it though for under $100 in repairs.

Specs, if they matter:
Athlon 2800+
Some sort of custom-made-for-HP ASUS Motherboard from an HP Pavillion a320n
1.5 gigs of RAM
Radeon x1300
450 watt power supply that came with a case I bought awhile back
120 gig HD that came with the PC

A few weeks ago it would start locking up randomly - I could be playing a game, or just sitting at the welcome screen. The screen would go black as if it weren't getting a signal (and on one monitor I have I would indeed get the "no signal" message), any sound that was playing would start looping the last second of sound, but all the power lights would stay on.

I have no idea what's causing it, and was hoping somebody might have some insight.

I've considered trying to swap various parts in and out from other computers I have, to see if there's any 1 part that's killing it. Would I need to reformat the HD if I switched to a different motherboard/processor (from my Athlon XP to an Intel Pentium D)?

Thanks in advance for any help... I just got a 22" monitor from Black Friday and can't even play on it yet

 

[Drakula]

What component did you recently change, if any? I did have similar type of problem when I tried to switch some components few months back, but only when trying to boot into Windows that it have BSOD, not the no signal problem.

If you are going to test different parts with another type of CPU, ie going from Slot-1 to Socket A, Socket 478, and such, or another motherboard, it would be best if you have fresh Windows to avoid more problem. If you can, use another hard drive with fresh Windows would be the best. That way, when, and if, there is problem with certain parts, your current Windows would still be intact and you can do the reformat later for your, hopfully, problemless system.

 

[kyzen]

Originally posted by: Drakula
What component did you recently change, if any? I did have similar type of problem when I tried to switch some components few months back, but only when trying to boot into Windows that it have BSOD, not the no signal problem.

If you are going to test different parts with another type of CPU, ie going from Slot-1 to Socket A, Socket 478, and such, or another motherboard, it would be best if you have fresh Windows to avoid more problem. If you can, use another hard drive with fresh Windows would be the best. That way, when, and if, there is problem with certain parts, your current Windows would still be intact and you can do the reformat later for your, hopfully, problemless system.

I swapped out an old Radeon 9800 AiW Pro several months ago, it was crashing left and right (in a very different manner though), that's the only thing that has changed.