My system has been freezing up on a regular basis (20 minutes is typical). At first, I thought a bad disk but now, I wonder if it might be my motherboard, CPU or some other hardware piece. Other symptoms have been printing problems (printer was freezing before the larger issue of the system lockup started which is why I suspect hardware). This is a homebuilt (not overclocked) and the CPU cooler was recently replaced so heat isn't an issue. Mobo, CPU is 3+ years old. SPECS: ABIT KT7, Duron 750Mhz. 300 Watt power supply. Any ideas of what to check would be MUCH appreciated.

turn your graphics acceleration down, if that helps then suspect the video card.

Could also possibly be a memory chip with a bad address location.

if you inspect the memory chips is the issue.. go to the site below and download their utility memtest86 to test ur memory. http:/www.memtest86.com

also it can cause this sort of the problem IF your power supply is dying.. you should try to replace some simple stuff first..such as checking the ide cables.swap them around and see if that does many any difference

Thanks for all the suggestions. However, none work. I've tested the memory - checks out fine. The issue has escalated. System can't find the hive (I had a sudden power loss in my home). So it doesn't boot at all. Won't even boot from CD to allow me to repair the Windows 2000 installation (yes, I've set it in the BIOS to boot from CD-ROM but it doesn't. The CD does work, however, it just won't boot from it.). I can access the system from a boot floppy and can see the files for the HD seems fine. Does this sound like a bad motherboard to you? Kinda seems like it is to me but I haven't a lot of experience with such things. Thanks for the further help. This is getting critical.