Today I re-installed Windows XP. (SP2) First, setup claimed that the CD wasnt in the drive but it was. Fixed that by taking it out and putting it in the second CD-ROM drive. Then, I made a new partion on the hard drive. Try to format it and setup says that the hard drive isn't installed right. So after a few tries I manage to format it (cant remember wether it was with FAT or NTFS though.) Began installing Windows and all was fine and dandy until it's done and restarts... Part way through startup it froze. I tried to restart again, but it just kept freezing. Managed to start it in Safe Mode. Went through all the troubleshooters, but nothing works. Any ideas? I'm thinking the hard drive is broken but dont want to buy a new one unless I have to.... And to think I just wasted $200 on the thing yesterday!:doh: One more major problem with that computer and I'm planning on taking out anything good like the power supply and disk drives and re-building it from the ground up... Thanks in advance!
I would first test the RAM overnight with Memtest86+, as memory problems can account for most of the symptoms you're seeing. Even one memory error is one too many, and can lead to corrupted data and instability. As for the HDD, if it was made by Maxtor, I'd replace it just on principle.
Ok thanks... I will try that and report back. And my hard drive IS made my Maxtor... It's been known to be a b*tch before. Guess I should get a new one. It's too bad I'm having these problems because I just popped in a new CD drive, 2 new cooling fans, and today made a speaker system into it so loud I'm blasted by Sevendust metal from every angle of the room with lots of base.... Guess I'm not a lucky type of guy! lol thanks.
I didnt run that memory program yet, still trying to figure it out.... What I DID do was go into safe mode again and disable all non-essential hardware including the sound and video cards. Fired it up and managed to get to the desktop this time before freezing. Looking at the price of new computer parts like motherboards and video cards, I feel rather faint... lol
You just download the CD image, extract it, and burn the resulting ISO as a new CD. Then, you boot to it. It will automatically begin testing, and will not stop until either you stop it, or your PC locks up.
Thanks. I was trying the ZIP method on my thumb drive last night but wasnt working... I'll hunt down a CD and try it now. Someone I know had a similar problem and said to me that it might be a bad partion or something and claim I try writing all zeros on the drive, make a new partion, reformat, and reinstall. If this memory test doesnt work, I guess I'll try that next.. Thanks for the help.
