XP Installation problems

[instigator]

Hi

I'm trying to sort my sisters PC and the following is the course of events:

PC Breaks down.

Motherboard & CPU blamed (it was an ancient 2.2ghz celeron anyway) so I throw it out and replace it with this:

https://misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=278926&Sku=110886

I install it, connect everything up and boot from CD. It hung just after booting from CD, freezing on "Detecting system configurations etc". Tried it about 20 times and it never got beyond that point.

Apparently it was either the memory or the Hard Drive that was causing the issue.

So having bought this type of memory with the Motherboard, I take it back and get a replacement (same stuff as before):

https://misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=236318

Now with the new memory installed (2 sticks), it still does not boot any further.

I replaced the original hard drive with a freshly formatted 250gb IDE hard drive. No change.

The system has a brand spanking new 450W ATX Power supply installed. I have tested the XP disc and it does indeed boot off correctly into the windows installation on 2 different computers.

Any ideas? If I replaced the CD-R & DVD-Rom drives it would be a whole new friggin machine!! Is it the memory? Is it the hard drive? Borked motherboard? Incorrect setting somewhere???

[lllN30lll]

try a different copy of XP
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Turbo R1
CRF450R

[instigator]

But it's worked on two other computers.

I even tried burning another copy on a fresh CD. Nae luck. Boots up fine and would install fine on other machines though

[T1z3R]

swing by and pick up an optical drive. its the last resort.
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duck my sick!

[lllN30lll]

put your own DVD drive in there to see if the installation starts using your drive.
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Turbo R1
CRF450R

[instigator]

I put my own CD-rw drive in and still the same problem.

I go into BIOS/CMOS (?) settings and start scrolling about and it freezes yet again. It seems it is just randomly freezing on certain stages of booting up. WTF!

Anything to do with motherboard settings? CMOS Jumpers? *shrug* Running out of options here.

This machine was originally an eMachines PC with eMachines recovery discs. Tried using them but the getting the same problem, it just freezes. Would the cpu be causing this somehow?

[2t-Screamer]

cpu overheating?
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[instigator]

It can sometimes freeze up within 10seconds of turning it on.

Can the CPU overheat in that amount of time?

Funnily enough, when I turn it on after leaving it for a while, it does get as far as it can before freezing where repeated attempts straight after don't get as far.

The Heatsink supplied came with thermal paste already on it, perhaps one should dig out the old artic silver.

[2t-Screamer]

a cpu can overheat almost instantly
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[2t-Screamer]

could also be gfx card overheating?
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[Philious]

What graphics card are you using, i found on my old system ages ago when i first got xp if i had my nvidia graphics card in the computer it would just freeze up

i swiched this for a cheapo 4mb agp card and lo and behold it didnt freeze, yet windows ran fine after installation when i reinserted the nvidia card.

just from my experience

hth
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[JonT]

I would put my money on bad ram timings or too low a ram voltage.

Newer low latency ram sticks use a higher voltage then what the bios may default to.

I would start however my turning on 2T command, and lowering (which means increasing the number!) the CAS latency in the bios. Then try ramping the ram voltage up (again in bios) in the smallest possible increments.