Also check and see if you have lots of dust clogging up your system. Use compressed air or something and blow out the fans and such. Heat can cause that problem.
check to see if there are any updates to the sound card that you have. The cable could be messed up or the input on the reciever could be messed up for just this input. all though those are both unlikely.
You have certainly chose a good place to chat about computers. The guys here know a lot and will help you with just about anything. Make sure you read the rules and enjoy yourself!
I wouldn't expect it to run games very well. Halo is old, and it might not run that very well. The atom is a great processor for mobile work, but not really meant for gaming. it also doesn't have a graphics card at all. You can probably buy a barebones system and a cheap graphics card for almost...
Install the operating system. then you can install a temp program and make sure it is all done correctly. then you can go in and play with the bios and start OCing.
Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to this.
I would say it would be much*** easier if you used a streaming box or something connected to your TV instead of long cables. Then you don't have to worry about changing around the monitor settings and things when your tv isn't on and it would...
how much money can you spend on this project? Do you have any brand preferences?
I don't think you want a wireless vga adapter. there are better ways to do that part of it. If you can find an old xbox (first gen) then you can mod it a little and install xbox media center, or that software that...
Id say there is almost no way to get at that data with out a really good recovery program. Not sure what that would be off the top of my head, but the ones that can do it probably are not free.