Hi Mike,

After reading your post, my first reaction was that this may well be a
overheating problem.
First of all - the symptoms you're describing are typical, plus the fact
that it is part of
the protection of this motherboard.
Quote: ASUS A7N8X-X  >It has C.O.P. > C.O.P. (CPU Overheating
Protection) is a hardware protection circuit that automatically shuts
down the system power before temperatures go high enough to permanently
damage your CPU " 

Secondly, You installed a faster and more powerful CPU - Did you
increase the cooling power?
IOW - install a larger CPU heatsink/cooler or additional fans? The stock
cooler won't cut it.
If needed install an extra case fan.

Temperatures can be checked with the ASUS PC Probe utility  - ASUS CD
-supplied with MoBo.

Since it worked OK for a week - other factors may have come into play as
well.Won't cover them here,
since a lot of them were covered by the excellent posts of Don
Penlington and Dean Kukral.

Some other points : Check Event viewer  - Applications and /or System 
for errors.

Possibly redundant, but worth checking - Is the cooler properly seated
on the CPU? Was the proper compound used on it?
Did anything change to impede airflow in- or around- the computer?

If needed the D/L page for this board is here 
http://support.asus.com/download/download_item.aspx?product=1&model=A7N8X-X
Select operating system in the box - Header - r-h side

Peter E.



> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [PCBUILD] software problem or hardware problem?
> From: Michael Eisenstadt <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Wed, September 30, 2009 1:46 pm
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> 
> Hi, 
> 
> I recently replaced the original Athlon XP 2600+
> cpu with an Athlon XP 3000+ cpu. The computer os
> is WinXP Pro SP 2, motherboard is an Asus A7N8X-X,
> RAM is 1G Kingston.
> 
> Computer ran normally for a week or so and then
> developed the following problem. In Normal Mode
> the computer locks up in about 5 to 10 minutes
> or Reboots. In Safe Mode with Networking, the
> computer is perfectly stable and connects to 
> the Internet. I have run Spybot and F-Prot anti
> virus programs which removed a number of malware.
> 
> In the BIOS, I have tried going to default 
> settings and other options but the problem 
> remains unfixed.
> 
> It seems that my options are reinstalling the XP 2600+
> cpu and/or reinstalling WinXP Pro as I still don't
> know whether I have a software or a hardware problem.
> 
> What do you suggest?
> 
> Thanks in advance for your help.
> 
> Mike Eisenstadt
> Austin Texas
> 
>                   

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