PC freezes, apps dont open.... help.

[hyerplane]

Upgraded to amd xp 2100, abit kd7-g, two 512 chips of kingston pc 2700 ddr, 3d prophet 3, and 400watt psu. Formatted os partition (4 or 5gb) of my wd 80gb hdd and installed 2k. Updated to sp2, ie6 and all other applicable updates (save obviously sp3). Proceeded to install aim 4.8, aim+, litestep, foobar, php4, mysql4, and apache2. Things seem to be running smoothly in the beginning but now I have some serious issues.

The computer freezes (total lock up) apparently at random. Once when trying to open aim+ the program would appear to open but would never show up anywhere. Task manager wouldnt show it under applications, but would under processes. I closed all instances and then tried again and it opened correctly. PC froze and I was forced restart. This time around the same problem occured with IE except no matter what I couldnt get it to show up (even after closes all instances under processes). Logged off and logged back on and it worked.

I have since uninstalled litestep and removed mysql and apache from starting on bootup noticing no change to frequency of freezes.

The only thing that changed system wise as far as I can figure is that I tried to install 3dmark2001. Prior to this I upgraded the via 4in1 drivers to whatever the newest version is. at the texture conversion step of the 3dmark2001 install it froze at 0%, 5%, and 0% in three tries. Although the comp did seem a bit sluggish in the very begginning this is the only thing I can think of as a starting point to the problem.

Sorry if long, just wanted give as much info as I could in hopes someone might be able to help.... please! :(

[Revelation]

Try downgrading your VIA 4-in-1 drivers to the last stable version you used. Upgrading to the latest isn't always better. ;)

[NorthViking]

Lockups could be a heat problem, i.e. the cpu.
Try and run the computer without the case, see if that makes any difference.
Also upgrade all of your drivers.

[Deadlus]

Try unplugging one 512RAM and test each one seperately.
You should also try to get Norton Utilities and do a system scan on your system to fix software problems.
Defragging might also help since windows seem that it's slow to find necessary files to run your programs.

[MrHyde666]

check if cpu cooler is installed properly (sitting exactly on the cpu). check if cooler fan rotates. check temperature of cpu in bios. should never be over 60° C (whats it in °F???). actually it should be around 40 ° C at max (appr. 110 °F?).
try another cpu of a friend.
try the above mentioned hardware checks (try running both of the RAM alone).

if nothing help, erase everything and install new.
if problem persists, hardware remains as the source of the problems. return to your dealer. most probably cpu (heatproblems mostly cause lockups). could also be RAM, but it is less likely as broken ram mostly results in many blue screens and error messages.