Dual-boot machine dies after SUSE install

Hi,
I'm a newbie to linux, and wanted to try it out, so I installed SUSE 10
(OSS) on my Windows XP (Dell, Pentium 4) desktop. During installation
the screen went black without warning, the monitor stopped receiving
signals, and the computer appeared to be totally unresponsive. I had to
unplug it to reboot, and was able to finish the installation. Then, it
started dying (in the same way) when the desktop environment (KDE) was
running. I switched back to Windows, and it was fine for a while.

I'm determined to try linux, so I installed debian over the SUSE
install. Same problem. And now, it started doing the same thing (going
comatose) in Windows. It seems to be happening more and more quickly
after booting up.

Observations: It's not just the monitor or video card, because I have
had music playing when it happened, and the music stops. Also, I can't
reboot via keyboard after it happens. When it dies, it gives no warning
whatsoever. The only thing that I've been able to link it to is when I
am using the computer... so far, when it's running without user input
it hasn't crashed. Also, it hasn't died when just running in command
line mode (without a desktop environment). My computer has one hard
drive, so I let SUSE partition it. OK, it just died again in Windows...
that time it seemed to coincide with the screensaver.

Can anyone help diagnose and fix this problem? I'm considering doing a
clean install (just linux) over the entire hard drive... seems
irrational since the problem seems linked to linux, but now that it's
tainted Windows that's not much of an alternative.

Thanks for any help,
Jeff

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