G'day scienceof, well things do sound somewhat terminal, the temperature you would have seen in BIOS would have been the processor, 56 is getting up toward danger kind of heat.
So it is likely you have a couple of problems together, these can be a pain to troubleshoot.
I would suggest obtaining an old simple pci video card, (just a couple of megs) should cost around $2 at a swap meet, this will allow you to remove your AGP card and troubleshoot your system with the PCI fitted. Do not work on anything while a powered lead is plugged into the machine.
Obtain "Everest" home 200 off the net, (free download) unzip and load it then find your way to a sensors icon on one of the first pages, this will allow you to monitor the temperatures and voltages in your machine.
It is possible your processor heat transfer medium is not functioning properly, the processor fan is not cooling properly, dust may be affecting the thing or a low voltage is causing some problem, and we haven't even reached the video card problem yet.
See how you go, others may have different ideas, and I am commonly wrong so bear that in mind.
Cheers, qldit.
So it is likely you have a couple of problems together, these can be a pain to troubleshoot.
I would suggest obtaining an old simple pci video card, (just a couple of megs) should cost around $2 at a swap meet, this will allow you to remove your AGP card and troubleshoot your system with the PCI fitted. Do not work on anything while a powered lead is plugged into the machine.
Obtain "Everest" home 200 off the net, (free download) unzip and load it then find your way to a sensors icon on one of the first pages, this will allow you to monitor the temperatures and voltages in your machine.
It is possible your processor heat transfer medium is not functioning properly, the processor fan is not cooling properly, dust may be affecting the thing or a low voltage is causing some problem, and we haven't even reached the video card problem yet.
See how you go, others may have different ideas, and I am commonly wrong so bear that in mind.
Cheers, qldit.