Graphics problems with new computer

so i put this thing together by myself. spent over 2 months scoping out prices and researching on if the pieces worked together or not while I waited for my funds to reach a level that wouldn't leave me bankrupt.

I also posted in another forum about my video card not working.(quoted after this paragraph)another problem has occured, the damn cpu fan stops working after about 15 after booting up. I have disabled any auto fan type things and have resorted to using a floor fan to keep the gut cool.

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15 seconds into either game and VPU pops up saying that my driver stopped talking to my display device and needing to be reset. sometimes i can go back into the game for a minute or two until it happens again. its getting pretty frustrating. if nothing comes from this post by tonight, I'm going to uninstal everything ATI and restart and see what happens.
I have patched everything up to the hilt on every program I have. and ati hasn't sent any useful info at all, still at the auto info stage not talking to a real person yet.
stats
amd64 3000+
asus k8v se deluxe MB
ati radeon saphire 9600pro 256Mb vid card
1Gb Kingston RAM
40Gb Maxter HD (it was on an incredible sale so I couldn't resist.)
windows xp w/ spk2

I have
- reseated the card
- instaled saphire drivers, ati drivers, omega drivers, even the drivers that xp prompts on startup
- upgraded bios, changed multiple settings involving card also with the control panel (couldn't even guess at how many times I rebooted last night)
- even had one of my IT friends log in to see if i missed anything, he's stumped.
-running memtest86 , after 7 hrs no problems detected
- and I also ran the 3d benchmark program 3dmark2003, seemed fine on the first pass but as soon as it hit the cpu test froze up after 1.5 seconds everytime I've tried it
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I have a theory that my 'card' problems might be a result of the cpu heat spiking when I'm running a 3d intensive program. last night I was able to use that free game xiah for about 10 minutes before it gave the same errors as before. that was after a clean install with only the latest drivers to run the min components installed. including chipset drivers, video driver, even found 1 for my moniter, lan driver, and I had an amd driver but it told me i didn't need it. as soon as it kicked me out of the game I checked the fan, and sure enough it had quit. just quit, it was still rocking back and forth as if it had just stopped. is that a coincidence? I tried getting back into the game and it would jack out as soon as it hit any 3d stuff.

is there a way I can check to see if it damaged my cpu at all, without getting a new one to replace it? I was going to get a new fan for it anyways, should I do that and see if it helps? I was all prepared for multiple software problems and stuff, but I spent so much time making sure the hardware was compatable that I didn't even think that something like this could happen.

on that note does anyone know where I can get some hardware compatability lists for the hardware I'm using? I'm all googled out and all of my returns were either reviews of the hardware which doesn't help or sites like this with people listing what kind of systems they have. which is kind of comforting to notice that people have similar systems that are apparently working fine.

good lord I hope the cpu isn't damaged and if it is its covered under warrenty.

 

and feel free to move this whereever it needs to go if this isn't proper. there just didn't seem to be a good spot to fit everything, and my problem started out wiht the vid card.

 

what temp is your cpu at when you go into the bios?

download mbm5 and enable the logging and see what happens to the temps when you play a game

also disable fast writes in the bios aswell as sideband addresing if there

if you suspect a cpu problem download prime95 (here) and run all of the torture tests

from what you say about the cpu fan stopping shortly after booting up -does it come back to life or stay off untill u power off and back on? have you tried connecting it to a different fan header on the motherboard

 

What PSU are you using? When it frezes, duck under the desk and feel if the CPU heatsink is very hot.

 

the psu is a true blue 480.
anyway I figured the fan problem to be an auto control thing that I missed when I was trying to turn off any auto fan things. it wasn't turning the fan on fast enough. in bios the cpu temp would be around 35c give or take a degree. and right after playing a game according to asuspobe it would hit around the mid 50c though I should have turned the rate at which it checks higher. in anycase the problem I was having after much hardware swapping was my crappy vid card. so I'm exchanging it for an asus9600xt under warrenty and hopefully I'll just have to pay the difference in price and nothing else. wouldn't mind getting into overclocking but I figured I would wait until I had a vid card worth the effort. and probably a liquid cooling system ready. thanks for your help guys. this site by far is one of the best of its type I hav come accross. and I have seen tonnes (maybe hundreds) in the last week or so trying to find what the problem is. this would have been alot easier if I lived anywhere near anyone I knew to do some hardware swapping instead of having to wait a week to do so. its so much easier than scouring the internet for fixes. still don't know exactly whats wrong, but at least I know what the problem is and that I can fix it.