Vista - My system freezes in both XP Pro 32-bit and in Vista Ultimate 32-bit

Ok This entry is going to be long because I am going to tell you everything that I’ve done to try to make my machine work without crashing so solutions won’t be given that I have already tried. The purpose of this thread is to diagnose what my problem actually is, so that I can go and get an exchange for it.)
This is the 2nd computer I have ever built. I built my old Pentium 4 from scratch when I was 12, no issues there and now I have built this. There is plenty of ventilation, 7 fans, in my system all up, not incl. the PSU.
So my problem starts about 2 months after buying my PC….
Put XP pro 32-bit on it updated it to SP3, working fine. Added my sound card just AFTER this problem first appeared. So my screen Froze, Ctrl Alt Del didn’t work mouse wont move, I try to move my mouse with both my mice and my keyboards (they both have touchpads) still nothing. If audio is playing at the time it loops the last 1/2 second over and over, I NEVER GET A BSOD. (Blue Screen Of Death). I thought this sucks, it is a new PC I’ll hard restart it and then check the event log. Nothing irregular in the event log, so I ignored it. Since this time, this has occurred most nights esp when I play a game, when Im listening to music or on a streaming website i.e Youtube (But this does happen at any other time as well).
I did all the normal things, rolled back drivers, individually and then even did a complete format of my harddrive and reinstalled XP again when the problem kept reoccurring. I then started to try to diagnose in many different ways. Running Chkdsk for my HDD, Prime 95 (CPU stress test), Memtest (RAM), Riva Tuner (to under-clock my GPU in case it was a temperature problem) in all my performance logs, the temps for my RAM, GPU, CPU, Chipset have never been a problem. So everything seems perfect. Yet this problem keeps occurring.
I installed the Windows 7 RC, hoping that a new OS would fix this, but all the drivers for this were in beta so when the problem persisted my instincts told me that it was a hardware problem and not a beta driver problem.
So I then updated my BIOS, turned into a Nazi updating all my drivers and firmware. No change. I eventually got my hands on one of my client’s Vista Ultimate DVD’s, So I installed Vista Ultimate 32-bit onto my 2nd hard drive. Still no change. Ran the various diagnostics again. Event log says my system is perfect. But when I hard reboot now in Vista after the freeze, the clock gets reset to 2003, and as this happens nightly this was and is becoming a real drag (Vista does not auto update when your system clock is out of sync by 6 years I found, and wont update from any of the time servers if your are that far out of time, so you have to manually reset to prevent from getting more errors).
So then came the Hardware problem solving, I’d taken my rig apart and had put it back together a few times by this point, so I have been quite patient yet quite frustrated. My girlfriend ordered me an air compressor can from work (work paid for it, great girl) and I sprayed the thin layers of dust away from every individual component. I have been seeking support from XFX for a month or 2 (my motherboard company) and they said they cant help. But I don’t think it is my motherboard, for many reasons, this thread has gone on too long so I wont get into it. I started trying to diagnose by taking out certain components, and seeing if my PC would still freeze when I booted up (I disabled the associated drivers in the device manager) so far I have only done this with my sound card as I don’t have any spare components to swap. So perhaps I’ll buy and build a really low budget PC and swap and diagnose problems that way. But I do want a quick fix for this problem. I have run my PC with the lowest part no’s available (1 keyboard, 1 mouse, 1 stick of ram, 1 monitor {I normally have 2 – one 24in the other 22in [run via my DVI ports to my VGA]}, 1 HDD, my graphics card) issue still occurs.
This problem definitely occurs more often with the sound card in, so I went and sought support from creative, they suggested that I remove the card, startup, uninstall all drivers and associated software, shutdown, install the card again and when I log in and the windows installation of device drivers comes up, cancel and install with my original CD. I’m thinking of doing this with my sound card and then again with my graphics card.
At the moment I’m thinking its either my graphics card, my sound card or my PSU. I think it’s an extremely small chance that its my PSU, for good measure I’m going to buy a UPS. But more likely it’s my graphics card with a combination of my sound card. I have read most forums on this problem and it seems that this could be anything. But I’m leaning towards my graphics card. Any fix would be a God-send. My minimum req for my system is a PSU of 750watts, so im 100 Watts up.
Absolutely ANY suggestions are welcome and If you help me solve this I will be forever in your debt, any other good applications to diagnose, problems you have had and solved with the exact same issue etc. are extremely desired. I have provided as much information as I think I can provide for this issue, but if you have any other questions to help me I’ll certainly answer if you can help me solve my problem.

alexdagr8est:

Just want to recap, the problem currently presents as:

The screen freezes, but you don't get BSOD.

When you hard reboot after a freeze, the clock resets to 2003.

Please correct if my understanding is off.

yes, system freeze "No" BSOD
my clock resets to 2003 when I hard reboot from the system freeze

Well if the clock resets maybe the BIOS battery is dead. Can you exchange the battery with a new one to start off with?

I'll give that a shot, but I know this isnt the case, in my Bios my System time is correct its in Vista that this happens after the hard reboot from the system freeze. actually I have to hold the shutdown key, because the reset button wont work when I press it (sorry should've mentioned that). Also when I shutdown and restart and then boot in XP this problem does not occur (the time is immaculate, perfect)

Building a chep PC might be the option. If you can take out the individual parts of the pc one by one you might pinpoint the problem. Have you also checked the cpu is seated properly, maybe with new thermal paste? Does Vista show any errors in event viewer in the system log?

The Cpu is definitely seated properly, it has sufficient thermal paste, As I was saying, building a cheap PC is definitely an option, but I dont really want it to come to that as of yet. There are a few errors that come up in the system log in vista, I checked them out, apart from the obvious "your PC shutdown unexpectedly" Im at work atm so I cant really troubleshoot atm, should've installed RealVNC on it. but I do know it said something like WMI error (could've been in system or applications)
I'll keep you posted, and if worst comes to worse I'll cannibalise parts from another system if necessary

I don't think its WMI as the error is usually harmless and Microsoft provided a vbs script to stop it. More info is here:

WMI Return Codes (Windows)

Have you tried to run the system file checker by opening up a command prompt as administrator and typing sfc / scannow? You'll most likely need the Vista DVD for it.

I had thought of that but I havent done that, because Im thinking that this wouldnt be the problem if this happened on both OS's (duel booted on separate HDD's) This also was the case when I had windows 7 RC on my computer on my other HDD (XP on one, 7 on the other formatted the HDD with 7 and installed Vista)
all 3 OS's have this problem.

You have suggested a few things that I havent tried though, Im thinking of resetting the motherboard jumper which you gave me from replacing the Bios battery
but I will check the system files, I have the Vista DVD so that's all good but I know they're fine

Ok so Ive reset the jumper -didnt work,
reflashed the Bios -didnt work,
Checked system files-all ok
Took out my sound card again after having a cry to creative that its my sound card, unistalled the drivers and all the software apps, restarted
BINGO it happened again, another part is ruled out Im adamant that its my graphics card now. Time to go and abuse Asus