Odd PC problem - degrading hardware?

[Joshu]

Hey, last weekend I decided to format my PC and reinstall Windows XP. My PC kept crashing ten minutes in to playing games, and I thought it would sort a few other minor problems as well. But whenever I used the Windows XP boot CD, my PC and keyboard would lockup as soon as the options for setup, repair and exit came up. I tried formatting with a Windows 9x startup floppy, upgrading from Windows 98 and a few other things. After four days, I gave up and decided to just install Windows 98.

It locked up a couple of times while it detected my Plug and Play devices, but I eventually got it going alright. Installed all the latest drivers and got the important things from Windows Update. I finally managed to install Half-Life and halt my aching Counter-Strike withdrawal. Went fine for 40 minutes, then the map changed and my PC just froze. Reset, and it locked up a few seconds in to the desktop. Went in to safe mode, turned off all the startup items and managed to get back in to Windows. Played Half-Life. Map changed. PC crashed. I gave in and went to bed for the night.

Next morning, all was well. I could turn on all the startup items without the PC locking up. I did bits and bobs for a few hours, when everything froze. Reflex action to the reset button, and now my PC got stuck at the Windows splash screen. After a few more attempts, I got past the splash screen and my PC died at the desktop instead. Slammed head against desk and decided that the lock up at the Windows installation was causing it, so put the Windows 9x startup disc back in.

But now, I can't even install Windows 98, it just locks up at a random time in the installation. The further in the day I get, the sooner the installation locks up, up to the installation intilisation. I've only had this PC since Christmas, but it's worth noting that I've always had insanely long bootup times when I first turn it on in the morning. Two or so minutes or fans whirring before the monitor finally comes on, and a hardware problem warning from Windows even though there's no sign of that when I'm actually in Windows. I just put it down to my CD-Rom and CD-RW's 40-wire IDE cable (they glued the bloody thing to the mobo, didn't dare to change it when I installed my CD-RW).

I've got a Chaintech 7AJA2 mobo with onboard C-Media sound, 256mb SDRAM, Abit Siluro GeForce 4 (440)mx, a 52x CD-ROM (not sure of brand) and a 40gb hard-drive (also don't know). I've installed a Realtek NIC and a 52x24x52 LG CD-RW. I doubt it's my CD-ROM because I get the same problems if I install with the CD-RW, so my uneducated guess is that the hard-drive or motherboard are having problems.

And with that short novel done, does anyone have any suggestions on what's the cause and how to fix it?

[dj_tigger1982]

OK what you do not say is what type of processor you have.

Is the hard disk you are using new or old? did you buy the PC from a retailer, and if so did you get recovery disks?


There may be a possibility that one piece of hardware is causeing the system to crash and it is trying to find that piece of hardware that might be a biatch.

Do you know how to build a PC?

If soo what i could suggest is stripping the PC down so that only the motherboard, processor, Ram, Hard disk, one cd rom, floppy drive and graphics card are installed,

Then try installing windows either 2000 or windows xp, or if you have recovery disks use them.

Once you have the pc up and running (hopefully), run that for a day or so, then add another device, e.g sound card and install the drivers, then run that for a few days.

Once you have all devices installed it is still causing issues, think back to what device you installed last and remove it.

I had an issue where my sound card and my network card were conflicting and causeing stop errors in windows 2000, a simple rebuild, adding cards and devices one @ a time, helped me to locate the problem and i found out it was a driver issue.

Hope this helps and good luck

Michael