Machine freezes and other weirdness?

[Xeno Chauvin]

Machine started freezing up when I played a certain game.
Freeze-ups then got to Win (XP-Home) and then eventually to some Win
programs.
They were/are intermittent and seem to present more symptoms each time.
Machine froze up both at start up and after having run for hours.
Currently the NEW oddity is when I try to pull down a menu it is very faded
then
brightens up. Also I note that the monitor seems to "pop" (not audibly but
visually)
once in a while but otherwise seems to be O.K.
Any ideas if this is a software or hardware problem? How can I isolate the
problem?
I have;
Updated all drivers;
Have latest ( not SP2) Win XP auto- downloads.
Latest Fire Wall and virus software versions. ( auto up dates from Symantec)
Run virus scan weekly, no viruses.
Ran scan disk and defrag;
Replaced mouse ( freeze-up appeared to happen when mouse involved.);
Replaced video card;
Tested power supply. ( only shows that it works not actual voltage.)
Any help will be appreciated.
Xeno

 

[Dave C.]

Machine started freezing up when I played a certain game.
Freeze-ups then got to Win (XP-Home) and then eventually to some Win
programs.
They were/are intermittent and seem to present more symptoms each time.
Machine froze up both at start up and after having run for hours.
Currently the NEW oddity is when I try to pull down a menu it is very
faded
then
brightens up. Also I note that the monitor seems to "pop" (not audibly
but
visually)
once in a while but otherwise seems to be O.K.
Any ideas if this is a software or hardware problem? How can I isolate the
problem?
I have;
Updated all drivers;
Have latest ( not SP2) Win XP auto- downloads.
Latest Fire Wall and virus software versions. ( auto up dates from
Symantec)
Run virus scan weekly, no viruses.
Ran scan disk and defrag;
Replaced mouse ( freeze-up appeared to happen when mouse involved.);
Replaced video card;
Tested power supply. ( only shows that it works not actual voltage.)
Any help will be appreciated.
Xeno

Most likely suspect is a bad power supply. It could be bad motherboard or
bad RAM, also. But I'd be shocked if replacing the power supply didn't fix
this problem. -Dave