For running XP, I would recommend no less than 1 gig of memory on the mother board. I looked at a lady's PC that was having basically the same trouble with her hard drive. I suggested to her to increase her memory and after she did, her problem left. Also, I've been told there is a golden rule to never use the last 10 percent of your hard drive space as this may cause your PC to crash. Of the 2, I would check memory first.
Hope this helps,
Larry Meister
ebaymeister@earthlink.net

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