See if you have an AGP Drive Strength setting in the CMOS setup (aka "BIOS"). NVIDIA cards don't like too much of this. I was having some funny problems with mine, which was set to FD. When I dialed it down to DD everything got better.

As for the software issues, I suggest finding better software. At the very least, install a good antivirus program and anti-spyware scrubber before installing applications.

 

i looked in the bios and didnt see anything relating to what u said......

 

Oh well, it was worth a shot. Not all motherboards or chipsets have this feature. You've already tried resetting it with the most conservative settings, haven't you? If not, do so. The memory timing might be set too aggressively. OTOH the memory might be bad.

 

looks like someone upped the FSB to 137mhz... from 133. Hasnt restarted since this afternoon.... even though i dont understand.. because 137mhz isnt very much..... hopefully this was the problem.

 

Sounds like overheat to me.

 

300w is a pretty small power supply? Could be when the graphics, HD and processor all start cranking on one thing it gets overwealmed and pop, restarts? You said it did it with both XP and 98SE? With 98 I'd say check for IRQ conflicts too, but XP should handle it? Seeya.

 

It might seem like a small difference, but it could be enough to mess things up. Some PCI and AGP cards can't handle any deviation from the frequency they expect.

 

overclocking causes real stability issues, also, next time it reboots, check the tempature in tbe bios setup (delete key on startup) and it should have a cpu temp monitor, should be under 130F, with my modded case my cpu stays around 109F with just fans 115F is ok range, over 125 is unstable (nomatter what anyone says) my 8 yrs as a computer tech plus my studies in thermal dynamics for cpu temps tell me 140F is NOT a good tempature.

 

That would have been my guess. Some systems are just not set up for overclocking. As for resetting the bios, you should look into the manual for the motherboard in case you need to do this in the future.

 

i'm thinking either an overheat issue or a videocard issue, check the temp first.