Frozen2Dream

So i have been trying to help my friend with a issue of hers for a while.
It seems 4 or 5 months ago her computer starting flashing on and off randomly alot, then eventuraly it would turn off completely, with a orange light on her monitor (stand-by)
Her computer works now as i have told her over the phone how to fix it somewhat (long distance friendship) I told her to go into Msconfig and turn on Basemode, and i also screwd with different drivers.
She has a NVIDIA Geforce FX 5200, her computer specs are just about the same as mine, only i have a little more ram then her. So il just say my specs sence its the exact same thing- Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4CPU 2.80GHz = 2.81 GHz, and she has 1gb of RAM.
Her computer works in safe mode perfectly, so shes constantly stuck in that mode all the time (that would be torture for me)
Her monitor now works in normal mode, but in the LOWEST res possable with basemode on.
The reason i post now is because we where trying to download maplestory (a day and a half with her connection, btw Maplestory is a 2D MMO) And then i find out she spend that entire day downloading something that wont even play for some reason (thinking its basemode)
she will do anything but open her computer up psysically (she thinks she'll break it lol)
earlier today we tried to use a different driver off windows updates, and now her computer freezes in normal mode again, even while in base mode.
Oh and before when she tried to change her res when normal worked, it would freeze. (the only reason she ever used normal was for music)
so does anyone have any idea what we can do?
shes going to turn it into a tech guy in a few weeks HOPEFULLY (if her mom dont get lazy and skip it)
But im worried the guy will tell her she just needs a completely new computer or that he will be of no help at all or something.
Help please guys, i honestly never thought id go to tech forums lol.

P.S if you guys reply to this fast, il reply again in about 4 hours (i have somewhere i need to go)
So if i dont reply right off the bat dont worry, i didnt abandon my own thread XD

EDIT: Also, Im not a very hardware savvy guy. Im very good with software (My XP is fully customized, and not with programs, riped the UI appart myself) So if you guys say something about PCI or something, er, tell me what it stands for so i get the general idea ^^;