Ok some questions...
>> Do the video and audio lock up at the same instant?
Yes.
> If so... it's most likely to be bad memory.
All 4 sticks are always showing up.
>If there's a time difference it might be the video card is shot.
Once in awhile, when it freezes, I can budge my mouse about 4 times before it ultimate locks up for good, but it's like stop motion animation(WHILE the sound goes wonky). This isn't as often however.
> Do you get any beeps during startup?
Nope.
> You can often look up the beep codes on the web and decipher them to know what's wrong.
Yep know about that.
>As for booting the DVDs ... how did you make them?
Download ISO, extract ISO with Magic ISO to desktop folder(Magic ISO freeware only allows 300mb), burn to CD everything untouched with Windows.
> If you burned the ISO with the Windows tool or Magic Iso they should boot.
I set my bios up, configured to make it think the only thing it has is a CD-ROM(everything else is disabled). I get invalid system disk with the CD in.
> Also note that most motherboards now support popup boot menus (usually on F5 or F8) during POST so you can select.
Same as above.
> Try different memory...
have, but DOA from years ago
> Try a different video card.
have but wrong PCI version.
> Try a different power supply.
Have but super old and only like 350w(mine's 850)
> It's probably something fairly simple...
Most likely, but not simple finding it when you dont have parts to swap out.
