I just built a new computer for myself. So FAR it has been the most troublesome peice that I've ever had to deal with. My build is as fallows:
AW8-MAX ABIT motherboard
Intel Celeron D 2.66Ghz Dual Core CPU
512mb G.SKILL DDR2 memory
MADDOG Radion video card
LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner
80gig Westren Digital HDD

The Motherboard seems to be very tempermental. I've had to call their tech support (they tried to tell me the reason for my pc shuting down was because me CPU was over heating at 255*C) a few times already. Now my video card seems to be screwing up. It's an OLDER card, I was hoping to save on the initial cost of the computer. When I use the DVI out as well as the VGA out the monitor blinks once it loads windows. My cpu seems to also be having some trouble. Nothing is running stable. One moment everything will be fine and the next it will sound like somebody slowed down everything. Even the music gets slower as well as page scrolling. Any ideas?How many fans do you have?

Flame3x 120mm

XP just reported a 'Device Failure' and shutdown on me, it says the device that failed was the video card. But that doesn't explain why the CPU is lagging so baddly.A bad vido card can cause ALL sorts of problems. If your CPU is at 255 degrees you really need to address that before expecting anything to run correctly, if at all.

Where and when did you make this purchase and do you still have receipts?Alight. Sense my last update alot has gone down. First off 255 degrees is pretty hard to get to in a matter of secounds (the plastic would melt...) turned out the guys over at ABIT Tech Support didn't know anything, got that fixed. The idea of a bad video card justified in my mind spending the cash for a new one, which I've installed (ATI Radieon X300SE). The systemed seemED a little more stable until it crashed again. It's down to just freezing up really bad. Could be a 64-bit CPU/MOBO running in a 32-bit world be what's hanging it up? It shouldn't be. I've been watching my system proformance very close and have noticed that just very little things like changing the track in Winamp take up alot of CPU power (4% when just draging the mouse around the screen, 8% to change a song track). When I get more then two things going at once is when it hangs up real bad. This system should be great for multitasking.

Bought from Newegg.com and yes, have all receipts (just like momma always said).What if you strip it to basics - MB/CPU/FAN, simplest PCI video card you can get and 1 stick RAM and see what happens? I would then test the RAM (www.memtest86.com) one stick at a time and make SURE the MB/CPU/Heatsink is correctly connected. if it works, add one component at a time till the GUILTY party is obvious.

You could always CONTACT newegg for an RMA before you pull your hair out.

Did you reuse some old power supply? If so, what make.model/wattage?How would I test without be able to boot windows? I know heating is no longer a problem, it never was, the motherboard was just set wrong. I only have one stick of RAM in currently and my video card, nothing else as far as PCI; I also have the DVD Drive and HDD. I've also come to find that it locks up so bad when one of the two cores from reason peaks out at 100% usage and the other for some reason idles...