Complete lock up at log in

Wife and I bought copies yesterday, installed fine on my machine, but hers is giving us fits. It locks up completely when you press the log-in button.
A slight improvement from yesterday, where merely starting the game simply blanked the screen (as if no signal) with no keyboard response (even ctrl-alt-del). We reset the monitor resolution to 1024x768 and the login screen with the animated background showed up. Yippee!!
Except that now it locks up when we click on Log-in. Again, no keyboard response, we've had to reboot each time. Changing options from that screen also causes a lock, as does trying to minimize the window.

AMD 1.25ghz
384 Mb Ram
+3 gb disc free
GeForce FX 5200

Tried anti-spyware? Newest Video drivers?

goto :

start>run>dxdiag[enter] try the direct x tests, see if they complete correctly

Well, first off. That is really just meeting the requirements to play. Also the game is known to be a good power sucker, if the monitor is losing signal it could be a power supply problem.

My suggestion would be to just go for a new computer though.

Yes on the video drivers. I'll try spybot when I get home.

I'll try that next. AFAIK directx is correct.

But it is now happening when I either log on or try to adjust options. It ran CoH and WoW handily enough. I'll look into it though.

This would be a last option. Bad time for big purchases.

Thank you both for responding! I only wish that GW responded so quickly.

So far:
Spybot destroyed some 26 things. That allowed me to open the log in screen, click on the button and bring up the "Accept terms" thing. And then it locked.

Went to check the dxdiag thing, and the computer locked during both the 2d and 3d tests.

A friend recommended downloading SP2 (which I didn't know I didn't have), from Microsoft, which he said is needed to run DirectX 9.0c. I'm trying that now, posting this as a quasi journal just in case someone else is following in my staggering footsteps.

Also, I found that my computer no longer runs WoW. My friend said that a bad version of DirectX might be the problem, so I'm trying sp2 then reload dx9

I would just advise a windows reinstall without a format.