GTA:SA bug help requsted

I have the original PC version of GTA:SA. No cheats, no patches, no
updates, and no mods. Except for slowness and jerky video I never had
a problem on my old PC.

I upgraded my PC recently. It is now an Intel 6700 cpu, 2GB memory,
and a 8800 GTX video card. I reinstalled the Windows XP Pro and
GTA:SA. All the latest XP patches and the newest drivers are
installed. I also deleted the gta_sa.set file but kept a couple of
save game files.

I started a new game but was unable to progress very far because of a
bug that I haven't seen before. CJ went into the barber shop for his
first hair cut but upon exit the screen was black except for the name
of the area. The computer was completely frozen. I couldn't change
tasks or break in with the task manager (CTRL-ALT-DEL). Also, the
mouse would not respond. The only response from the system were beeps
from the system speaker when the key buffer was full. I had to power
cycle the box to clear the error.

I tried this several more times with simple changes (buying or not
buying a haircut, different haircuts, etc...) with similar results.

Looking for bug reports, I found some clues to drawing distance might
be a cause of the bug. I had set my drawing distance to the max
(after all, I do have one of the fastest cpus, one of the hotest video
cards and I am running a 2 year old game.) I tried setting it to a
middle value and the error cleared.

I thought that I had found a fix until I got to the mission "Drive
Thru" when the same bug occurred when exiting CJ house. I went back
in to pick up more spray paint. I then re-ran the mission without
entering CJ house. After the mission, I went into the Chicken place
for food and the error occurred upon exiting.

Anyone have any useful ideas.

Thanks,
kirk

"Hard" lock-ups usually has something to do with the videocard/driver and/or
insufficient power supply
Your system might in fact still be responding but you won't be able to see
the results.
I once had hard lock-ups / black screen with a new videocard, - it turned
out to be a (well-known) hardware issue with that particular videocard.

Try Googling for problems with that particular videocard.