Game crashes with new harddrive

SYS: Athlon 1800+, 256 DDR2700+ 256 DDR2700 RAM, ATI 8500LE 128DDR, SB Live etc. etc. etc.
I recently installed a new 80g (WD) hd, and my games: Ghost Recon, Sim4, Splinter Cell will not run properly. The games will initiate but game play is limited due to system crash (after 5 mins of play). On system crash, the screen shifts from XP desktop to game screen at a high frequency, an almost psychedelic effect OR it remains black. Anyway- this is a serious issue since I have reinstalled the ATI drivers, Direct X 9, many times.
For some reason, my system is stable surfing the net, or watching videos, or applications: Office XP, Photoshop, but in games, it dies. The games were working on my 40g (Maxtor) drive, before I changed over to the new 80g drive. All programs and apps were reinstalled.
Do you know the reason? It has been three weeks now, and I cannot game!
FUBAR

did you do a complete re-install or did you copy everything from your 40 gig to the 80 gig?

On installation, all my programs, including Win XP Pro, and apps, were completely reinstalled. But the "My Documents, My Downloads, and My Mp3's" folders were transfered from my 40g to my 80g. I did not think that transfering these files would hurt. Was this an okay thing to do??? What else could have gone wrong???

Sometimes when the monitor goes black, a message: "H.V. Frequency Over Range", or "VGA signal lost"= or something like that, is displayed on my Viewsonic monitor.

Try a diffrent resolution. My flat panel does that when I go over a standard resolution, just give it a try.

[Uranium-235]

hmm. maybe have some corrupt drivers maybe? a HD shoulden't do something like this.

Only other thing I can think of is the drive is hotter then your last and it's heating up your case causing CPU instabliilty.

i have the same problem, its the via drivers and soundcard / ati issue. after months this issue is driving me crazy.

I have the same problem and the same config as cookiemonster. have you or anyone in this forum found a solution?

Originally Posted by cookiemonster

SYS: Athlon 1800+, 256 DDR2700+ 256 DDR2700 RAM, ATI 8500LE 128DDR, SB Live etc. etc. etc.
I recently installed a new 80g (WD) hd, and my games: Ghost Recon, Sim4, Splinter Cell will not run properly. The games will initiate but game play is limited due to system crash (after 5 mins of play). On system crash, the screen shifts from XP desktop to game screen at a high frequency, an almost psychedelic effect OR it remains black. Anyway- this is a serious issue since I have reinstalled the ATI drivers, Direct X 9, many times.
For some reason, my system is stable surfing the net, or watching videos, or applications: Office XP, Photoshop, but in games, it dies. The games were working on my 40g (Maxtor) drive, before I changed over to the new 80g drive. All programs and apps were reinstalled.
Do you know the reason? It has been three weeks now, and I cannot game!
FUBAR

I know that this thread is extremely old, but try this:

Restart the computer and immediately start tapping on the F8 key on your keyboard until a Boot Menu appears on the screen.
Select 3 for Safe Mode and hit Enter on your keyboard.
Once in Safe Mode, click OK to the message and then right click with your mouse on the desktop.
Select Properties and click on Settings.
Click on Advanced and then click on Adapter.
Change the Refresh Rate from Unknown to Adapter Default and click Apply.
Click OK and then click Apply on the Settings screen.
Restart the computer to accept changes.