Problem with New K8NSC

[JWeavis]

Just got an email from my brother-in-law. I helped him put this machine together this last weekend and he always has the worst luck with PCs. I built it and then sent it home with him after the OS was up and loaded (14 hours after we started-different story).

System specs:
Gigabyte GA-K8NSC
Athlon64 3200+
PNY(?) PC2700 2x512
ATi 9600 128mb (using my backup card till his 9800Pro comes back from ATi)
80GB Western Digital
Antec TruePower 430w
Windows XP SP2 - Retail

*white flag*

About ready to give up. I can't play WoW without the
thing crashing. I don't know what to do.

Things that happened last night:

- Ripped out catalyst drivers, installed Omega
Drivers.

- Updated the sound drivers from Realtek. Plugged into
the blue plug, all speakers started behaving.

- On start up, sound cuts in after a blip, then the
window's start-up sound trumpets.

- Dxdiag says everything is fine.

- Turned fastwrite on the vid card to OFF through
Omega interface.

- After a random amount of time playing, both screens
cut to black. I have to hit the reset button on the
case to power it back up. Can be 5 minutes to 40
minutes.

- Once, ONE screen cut out (primary, VGA plug) but the
DVI/second screen was fine. Mouse moved on it,
applications came up on it. I swapped the monitor plug
inputs - 2nd moniter to 1st position and 1st monitor
to second position, and whatever was plugged into the
normal VGA plug didn't work. After a minute or two of
puzzling over this, the second screen went black and
the system was black screen frozen again.

- Even when the computer is OFF/powered down, the
keyboard light stays lit. When you unplug the USB and
plug it back in, light is off. It's retaining power -
somehow?

- Front USB won't work. Back 4 do.

My primary concern is playing games. It looks like a
video card issue now -- but the vid card was working
fine in the other motherboard. Can it be overheating?
Is there a monitor I can get to check that? Why won't
the VPU recovery at least bring the system back up?

Help, please?
- frustrated addict in withdrawal

I sent him the link for the nForce 6.53 drivers to install.

The all the USBs were working at 1.1 untill the USB2.0 drivers were installed. Then the fronts will detect but everything is an Unknown USB Device.

I did not see a

Next step is having him take one of my systems and letting me beat on this for a few days.

 

[Aular]

Brother-in-law in question, here.

Running dual 19-inch monitors - (LCD) Samsung 913v and (Flat Screen) Samsung Synchmaster 955df. Both sit at 1280X1024, highest color quality. I play World of Warcraft and can't keep the system running when doing so -- it crashes to a black screen (both).

Here's hoping someone can help!

Patrick F