Turns off when installing XP

[Bubbzilla]

A friend of mine asked me to reformat the harddrive in his computer. Heres the specs:
AMD 64 Athlon
1.5gb of ram (in 2 x 256mb and 2 x 512mb)
160gb IDE HDD
onboard graphics
and a 288W PSU

Ive spent the last 10 hours trying to get it to work. and i havnt gotten very far. At first, it kept turning off about a minute after booting from the XP disc. Eventually, i figured out its overheating. The temp monitor in the BIOS said it was sitting at about 100C. When it gets to 125, it turns off. So I cleaned it out, added a bunch of fans, cleaned the CPU heatsink and replaced the thermal paste, took the side off, and after all that, it was only down to like 92C in bios and still overheated when installing XP. Right now I have it running by an open window (its about -20C outside) and the bios says its about 78C. It does work, but thats hardly a practical solution. Is it possible theres something wrong with the sensor?

Well, that would seem like its enough trouble for one computer. but no. Ive finally reformatted the harddrive, which seemed to go relatively well, when it was done, it did its stuff and then restarted like it should. When it restarted, it got to the XP loading screen and now its just sitting there, endlessly loading. smae thing happens in safe mode except it sits at a giant list of directories.

I should mention that the reason im reformatting it in the first place is because when it turns on normally (this is before I did anything to it), it gets past the XP loading screen normally, then it flashes blue and restarts. If it helps, the blue screen says this:

STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.

Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete.
Conact your system adminisstrator or technical support group for further
assistance.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated. Aside from pouring holy water on it, im pretty much out of ideas. Thanks

[Bubbzilla]

I tried using a different harddrive, and it eventually worked. Although thats hardly a solution. And I still have the overheating problem, although now its down to about 66.

[Canker]

Have you tried clearing the CMOS in case there's something screwy like the wrong Vcore being used, or some other kind of incorrect detection of processor settings?

Is that 66C at idle, or load?

Originally Posted by Bubbzilla

I tried using a different harddrive, and it eventually worked. Although thats hardly a solution. And I still have the overheating problem, although now its down to about 66.

[Perineum]

I would also do a memory test before I wasted another second on it.

[Bubbzilla]

66C is in the bios, so the load should be pretty low. I have tried clearing the cmos but it didn't help.

Ill try a memory check.

Is it possible its the PSU? Could unstable power cause OS to be corrupt and mess with formatting? Could it even have damaged the motherboard so the sensor is wrong?

Thanks for help.

[sswilson]

Try it with just the 2X512 sticks.... Might be stable enough to run with the mix he's got, but might not play nice with an OS install.

[Bubbzilla]

Im almost certain its a bad power supply. When it starts off the working harddrive, it gets just past the XP loading screen, then it makes a pulse, as if the fan turns off for a second. Then it keeps making noise, but whatever was on the screen has frozen. (I changed the PSU back. the replacment was from a perfectly good computer, plus the cords arnt long enough. I had to have it sitting on the edge of the case)

someone on another forum said they had a similar temp problem and it turned out to be caused by a blow capacitor. He said to check for bulging capacitors. Hard to tell, but heres a pic. Do any of those look blown?



If the powersupply, motherboard, and harddrive are all busted, then it pretty much dead. it would be hard to justify fixing it considering how old it is.

[Gonzo]

I would reflash the BIOS before Packing it in. It sounds like Xp is having conflicts with controlling the BIOS.

Hope this might help save you some cash.

[Bubbzilla]

Somehow, it is finally working. Using the original hdd, and original PSU it is at the point in the install that it wouldnt get to earlier. The part where you set the language and what not. Only difference from how i got it is the HDD is plugged into primary IDE and DVD is in secondary which is opposite of original. Also put a new IDE cable for HDD. If it works, and i can get service packs install, mabye ill get to disk checks, temp checks, and ram checks. Fingers crossed

[Perineum]

Originally Posted by Bubbzilla

someone on another forum said they had a similar temp problem and it turned out to be caused by a blow capacitor. He said to check for bulging capacitors. Hard to tell, but heres a pic. Do any of those look blown?

Those caps appear to be fine.