Win XP Home Locking UP

[kkjensen]

The computer has been operational for about 5 months since installing XP on a fresh install. Recently I have had the system lockup requiring a poweroff to restart it. Every time I have been surfing the web when it locks up and I'm suspecting something with the 56K USR modem but I'm not sure. This is what happens:
While surfing the web I can start hearing a relay clicking type noise inside the case. The click will occur about 3 times, after the first click I will loose all ability to do any web surfing, after the 2nd the mouse will stop responding but I can access the start bar by pressing the windows key on the keyboard, after the 3rd click I loose all control of the system. The modem is a USR 5690 which is supported by XP and all drivers were automatically loaded during install. The lock-up has only occured 4 times but is sure a pain in the rear when it does (last night it happened twice).
The computer has never been running for any extended period of time. I ran the hardware monitor to check for overheating and everything is fine. My only other guess is the video card but I don't understand why that would cause the problems I listed below. ***After the second lock-up I opened the case so I could try to identify where the sound was coming from and ran the computer for about 3 hours playing a very demanding video game and nothing ever happened ****This only happens while on the internet!!!

The modem is very old and if necessary I will replace it, I was thinking of another USR modem (5610B), only because up until now I have never had any issues. If you have any other suggestions on modems let me know..ALSO, if I replace it is using a "hardware modem" significantly better than a "winmodem" -or- "software modem".

System specs:

Abit KR7A-133
512mbram Crucial PC2100
Western Digital 100gig
XFX GeForce 4 4200 64meg
USR 5690 56K internal winmodem
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2
XP1700 1.47gig processor

What I have done: All fans are working perfectly, hardware diagnosis program running for hours says everything in check (no overheating). Problem isolated to internet activity only. ALL drivers and windows updates are up to date, this includes all cards, MB and software!

Thanks in advance!!
Kevin

[pam123]

Your elderly modem could be failing but it also sounds like you should tell your ISP that you're having connection problems.
It'd be really annoying to buy a new modem and find out that the problem was still there because it was all on their end.