Please Help - Serious Mystery Problem when Online then on boot

I double posted this in the Windows Xp and the General Hardware forums, since I don't know which it is. Apologies if this was poor forum etiquette.

I consider myself very competent in handling PC problems, but since I have no clue as to what is causing this problem I will post a complete summary of what has been happening. I apologise in advance for the length of this.

It all started several weeks ago, while booting into Windows, just after the loading screen (you know the one where it says “Windows XP” and a little bluish/purple bar moves back and forth underneath). Instead of seeing, the usual Welcome/Login screen there was a brief delay followed by my monitor light turning orange. I took this to mean that the computer had shut itself off, but it was still running. Taking off and putting the monitor back on again did not help, it just got no signal. After turning the computer off and on several times (by holding down the power button), I decided to boot into Safe Mode. This worked fine, I did a System Restore and my computer started to function normally again.

Then, last week, while I was on the Internet I hear a click and the same thing happens...i.e. the monitor light turns orange. This time a System Restore does not help. I try multiple restore points, going back several months, but nothing works. Confused, I pop in my Windows disk and do a ‘repair’. While I boot up fine after the repair, it has obviously messed up my Windows badly as I get all sorts of errors in Windows. Frustrated, I back up My Documents and installation files, wipe the hard drive and start again from scratch. Again, everything works fine, until I connect to the Internet. Within 2 minutes, the monitor light goes orange and I have to restart. Again, I cannot boot into Windows normally and must use safe mode. Eventually, I boot by using ‘VGA’ mode. On start-up Windows tells me I have recovered from a serious error. I connect to the Internet and send the error report. A page comes back telling me it appears to be a problem with my display drivers, so I download the latest ones.

Things work fine for a day or two until when I am on the Internet the problem occurs again. Eventually, I manage to get back into Windows, connect to the Internet and send Microsoft this error report. This time they say it may be a device driver problem. I go to the Dell Support site and get EVERY driver update I can, starting with the modem.

Unfortunately, as you may have guessed it has happened again, while I was on the Internet and I was unable to get back into Windows proper for a while.

Overall, this is the basic problem:
When I connect to the Internet, within the first 5 minutes, the monitor light goes orange and I cannot get a picture again. On rebooting, the monitor light usually goes orange right after the loading screen. Note that once I am in Windows it will never happen unless I connect to the Internet. Also, note that I am sometimes on the Internet and everything is fine.

Some other points to note:
• I have Spybot and AdAware, both show nothing, so I doubt it is spyware, but possible.
• I have AVG antivirus, with the most recent definitions, so I do not think it is a virus.
• I have ZoneAlarm as my firewall.
• Windows was patched with all critical updates prior to my format.
• I installed the latest drivers for almost all my hardware, including Graphics card, Monitor and Modem.
• I have the latest version of Mozilla FireFox installed.
• The monitor only goes when booting into Windows proper, Safe Mode ALWAYS works.
• A different monitor means the same problem.

It may be a hardware problem, but then why does it only start when I am online?

I am really at my wits end with this problem and still have no clue what is causing it, much less found a solution.

I would greatly appreciate it if anyone can help or has any ideas.

Thanks, and sorry again for the length of this post!


Dell Dimension 8200
NVIDIA Geforce3 Ti 200
Dell P992 Monitor
Conextant HSF V92 56K Data Fax PCI Modem
Pentium 4 2Ghz