Windows is killing me!!!!

[ferrol]

I have a major problem with XP pro.
First the box;
asus a7a266-e m/b
wd 40 g 7200
asus mx440 64ddr
1200 duron
s/b live value
smc 10/100 nic
floppy
cd rom
300w generic p/s
3 case fans
the problem.....................
It started with windows crashing and burning about 8 weeks ago. i tried reinstall but kept getting errors until i just got a black screen.
could on get into dos.
must be bios........flashed bios no change
took all cards out no change
took the m/b back ang got warranty no change
changed cpu no change
changed v/card nochange
changed h/d to an old 4.3 and it worked so i took the h/d back and got a warranty
put it in and now i'm getting all sorts of errors when i try to install
XP
They are not consistant errors it keeps changing.
it boots into setup and you get all the way to saving settings and it gets a fatal error and there are a list of files it says are corrupt.
i ve loaded XP from this disk onto 4 other pc's to test it and its fine.
any suggestions???????????

[Raven]

Let me get this straight.. down to the part where you switched your Hard Drive, the rest of the hardware changes had no effect on the errors you were getting?

From what it looks like, your HD is huffing and puffing it's last. You might want to look into a new one.

Have you ran ScanDisk on it?

Also try changing the IDE cables first.. you could have a bad one. I doubt that's the case, but give it a shot.

[bigjackusa]

It sounds like you have swapped out just about everything but the p/s and ram. You might try changing the power supply. Some generic ones are really crap. When you put the old hd in and it worked, it was probably drawing less power (5400rpm vs 7200, fewer platters, etc.) than the new one is. P/s problems often generate various errors instead of consistant ones because they cause problems with many power draining activities. It does sound like all of your problems happen during hd activity.

[ferrol]

just tried the p/s no change
tried ram 128 pc100, 128 pc 133 (3 different sticks) 256sd, 512sd and 256 kingmax ddr pc 2100
the ram works fine in my other systems.
brand new 40g wd h/d fitted no change??
do I have GREMLINS????????????????

[Darthtanion]

Just for grins and giggles, get an old Win9x boot disk and run fdisk. Remove the active partition and recreate it. Then run this command:

fdisk /mbr

Then you should be able to boot from the CD and load WinXP normally choosing whatever file system makes you happy when it asks for a format. No promises, but it certainly can't hurt. ;)

[ferrol]

It was a grin but it didnt work.
Finally managed to get XP loaded today but it kept freezing when
I tried to install drivers or deton.
had 3 sticks of 256 oem ram in it. took the ram out and tried it in 2 other machines and it worked fine with the same h/d.
when I put it back I forgot to put in the first stick cos i always put the ram in the way the slots are numbered eg. slot 1 first, and so on thinking this was good practice.
Well the problem disolved!!!!!!!!!!
the first ram slot is faulty cos when i put a stick in it the prob returns till i take it back out.
thanx for the suggestions tho, cos it kept me trying bits and i just got lucky and jagged a result!

[meihui]

happy you ok you not like croc hunter?

[ferrol]

knew him when he was just steve irwin and he was a dick then and hes just a well know dick now.