agp slot issue with my motherboard

hey guys,

i recently posted in the video card section about issues with crashing during games or times of high load. after replacing the video card and switching cases i have found myself having the same problem, just not as fast. (sorry in advance for the long post)

here is a recap of what happens now usually: when i run one of my games (games include everquest/world of warcraft) the computer will run fine for a bit and then when i do anything of significance or after a certain amount of time...it will simply crash sorta. ill try to summarize the situation below giving you guys as much information as i can! (will try to keep it short though heh). ill split it up into sections to make it easier to read

this is the process ive been through:
-when i first started to have trouble the actual video output got distorted and lines were going all around my monitor and then a few seconds later, the system would hang. at this point i hadnt upgraded my video card NOR my case. the issues also happened in about 10seconds to 1-2minutes on a 128meg radon 9800 pro
-i then decided that, due to the skewed output that it was probably my video card and replaced that with a radeon x800GTO. i also bought a new case so i could ensure that it got decent air flow and a strong setup (my old case was kind of messed up). (i dont mind per say as my old video card lagged me out a bit on raids so it was time to upgrade anyway, just a little frustrated that it wasnt actually the problem)
-i moved everything over into the new case and installed the graphics card at the same time. everything seems to be working (can load windows fine, etc.). video card is installed along with the newest ati drivers as well as my 3 hd's, 1 cdrom, 1x agp video card, and ethernet card.
-i go to load up the games with the new setup, and now a few different things happen... in some cases it will restart my pc on me. other cases it will hang and the ati software will do a VPU recovery thing stating that my video card stopped taking commands. other times the screen just goes blank (all output to the monitor stops as my monitor looses signal) but i can still turn numlock on and off.

things ive tried so far to fix it:
-as i said ive replaced both the video card and the case. video card went from a radeon 9800 pro 128mb to a radeon x800GTO 256mb. the case is an antec (can get links to both products if it would help)
-ive cleaned the system of as much dust as i could find - did a lot of this while changing cases. there was a lot of dust in my old one so that may have caused something.
-ive tried unplugging all but one of my harddrives (so only my main hd was setup - no cdrom/other 2 hds) to test to see if maybe my power supply was killing itself...but same thing still crashes.
-ive reinstalled windows onto a different harddrive then i was on previously. i doubt its an issue with the game software itself as it crashes for both everquest and world of warcraft.
-i ran memtest86 on my pc and there were no errors. my current memory situation is: 3 chips, 1x256mb pc2700, 1x512mb pc2700, 1x512mb pc2100.
-ive also checked all fans (including: case fan, heatsink fan for the processor, fan on the video card) - they all work fine

some other observations ive had:
-before this problem the video output while playing one of my games had issues for a bit. like id see lines appearing or something similar randomly while playing as if there was interfearance of sorts.
-when i load windows sometimes there is a small graphical glitch in the windows logo for a split second...its really fast and been happening for a bit so i never really thought to look into it

and now...
basically im wondering if its possible/probable that my motherboard is in fact messed up? I'm assuming its not the processor (and praying as i dont want to have to replace that and the motherboard). my current motherboard is a Asus A7V8X. i know its not the newest but it has been going strong for a long time. is it possible that something (dust/etc.) got far into the actual agp slot? or perhaps there's a connector somewhere that got messed up...thus causing a disruption in video output when its used?

as of now i really am at a loss for ideas. i have however tried my best to narrow it down as much as possible. in the process of trying to fix this ive also started looking around for motherboards that would work with my current setup (socket a/462 and with an agp slot, hopefully 3+ pci slots). im currently considering:
-EPoX EP-8RDA3+ PRO ATX AMD Motherboard
link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813123233

i read the reviews for that motherboard and a lot of people either hated it, or loved it. ive read a lot of the epox reviews here and they seem solid...just wondering if you guys have any suggestions on a good, socket A motherboard with an AGP slot. (the processor i would be switching in is an athlon XP 2400)

anyway, if you guys have any reccomendations of way to test my agp slot, or ways to narrow this problem down more so i would greatly appreciate it.

thanks! and sorry again for the long post

i may end up getting a new power supply. im not entirely sure quite yet. also leaning towards just getting a new motherboard and new processor as my current socket A one is kind of old.


i dont suppose anyone has a reccomendation of a good motherboard that has both pci-e and agp on it? i have found, just wondering if there's any that are above the rest 8) current i am considering getting: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813157081

thanks for the help 8)

i decided to go with a new motherboard and processor to replace my socket a

motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813157081
processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103603

can't wait to get it and try it out 8)

my current setup is a athlon xp 2400 in an asus a7v8x, cant wait to see if there's a huge difference or not 8)