Link, when did this start screwing up worse - when you fiddled with the soundcard drivers?

A little wiping and reinstalling might be in order, here. Before you do, though, disable your soundcard in the hardware manager (wherever this is in XP) and remove the soundcard drivers entirely. If this fixes your problem, ditch the soundcard and get a new one. If not, format C: and reinstall XP, using only the XP disc for drivers. After you have it up and running, play with it for a while and see if it's still unstable.

You mean VIA Northbridge, and AMD Southbridge, a good 'ol combo board? Those always have had problems playing nice.
Like I said before, XP has already told you that installing the soundcard was going to bork your system, and that's pretty much what's happened.
I don't really want to ask how your running XP when you don't have a CD for it. Some things are better left unsaid.
I would STRONGLY suggest before you do any reinstall on your current hardware config, that you go and find yourself a soundcard that's XP compatible, otherwise you're going to be in the same position you are now. Head over to your motherboards website and check to see if your current mobo has any problems with your prospective soundcard. The Audigy is a pretty good bet these days, although it does do some nasty things when mixed with XP and older hardware.
Judging by the sounds of things, your don't seem to be too familiar with computers and although these things aren't hard to do, they can be very time consuming and frustrating for newbie's so you might want to consider getting a friend to help you or doing some research on the net first. If I'm off base here, I appologize.
I would also suggest downloading all the latest drivers that you need and burning them onto a CD-RW or CD-R. I'm guessing that the drivers that came with your machine are probably a little on the old side.
Finally, good luck with your project.

Judging be past responsed, XP has already told Link to take a hike when trying to install the soundcard drivers. If I was a betting man, I'd say that the soundcard is the root of all the problems. (As they so often are :D )

I have a lot of computer magazines, and if you do need to find a new part for your computer, I may be able to find something in my magazines, although the price may not be correct.

bump

I want to know if your computer is fixed yet. Also, I like learning about computers, and this thread is about a computer error.