locking up during boot

[laihafloyd]

I'm trying to figure out why my computer has been locking up. I have an ASUS A7N8X2.0 with an AMD Athlon 3200+. When it was first installed i was using windows xp and had no problems. i started running a dual boot with linux and then got rid of windows all together. after an distribution upgrade, the system started locking up during the OS loading. i thought it was software at first. somehow i figured out that by lowering my cpu frequency from 200 to 166, it wouldn't lock up anymore. to make a long story short, it froze up a few more times over the past two years, and each time i would lower the cpu frequency some more, now it is set at 100 mhz - last week it was running fine at 133. why did this happen? when i try to load it up to 200 with 11 multiplier, which i thought was the correct setting, it starts locking up during the memory test. i hear a click then a whirring sound that keeps cycling. if i try to run at 166, it will sometimes get to the os boot sequence before it locks up.
here is some more info from lshw in linux:


description: Desktop Computer
product: A7N8X2.0
vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
version: REV 2.xx
serial: xxxxxxxxxxx
width: 32 bits
capabilities: smbios-2.2 dmi-2.2 smp
configuration: boot=normal chassis=desktop
*-core
description: Motherboard
product: A7N8X2.0
vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
physical id: 0
version: REV 2.xx
serial: xxxxxxxxxxx
slot: Serial Port 1
*-firmware
description: BIOS
vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
physical id: 0
version: ASUS A7N8X2.0 ACPI BIOS Rev 1006 (08/19/2003)
size: 64KiB
capacity: 192KiB
capabilities: pci pnp apm upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppy360 int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer int10video acpi usb agp ls120boot zipboot
*-cpu
description: CPU
product: AMD Athlon(tm)
vendor: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]
physical id: 4
bus info: cpu@0
version: 6.10.0
slot: Socket A
size: 1100MHz
capacity: 3GHz
width: 32 bits
clock: 100MHz
capabilities: fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse syscall mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow up ts
*-cache:0
description: L1 cache
physical id: 9
slot: L1 Cache
size: 128KiB
capacity: 128KiB
capabilities: pipeline-burst synchronous internal write-back data
*-cache:1
description: L2 cache
physical id: a
slot: L2 Cache
size: 512KiB
capacity: 512KiB
capabilities: pipeline-burst synchronous external write-back data


what's happening?