XP installation problem(s)

[hsx285]

THIS IS A LONG AND SAD STORY, ANY ADVICE MOST WELCOME: About 18 months ago i built a socket 754 barebones PC for my son. After a while it kept shutting down for no reason at all, so after various attempts to sort it out I decided to reinstall my copy of Windows XP home (with SP2). This seemed to make the problem worse, and after exhausting all the options I decided that it was a hardware problem, so about 6 months ago bought a new motherboard. No improvement, so I decided to buy a new hard drive this time. By this time another problem seem to arise, which is what I want help with now. Every time I use the XP installation disk to install a new copy on the (deleted partition) hard drive, it gets stuck copying certain files over from the CD to the HD, but it seemed to be the same files each time. I tried installing without these files (about 10 in all), but I was left with a host of operating problems. At this point I thought it was a problem with the CD itself, because it looked scratched. I tried various recommended methods to 'clean' it (toothpaste, brasso etc.!!), but to no avail ultimately. So finally I decided to buy a new installation CD, which I received today: and STILL THE SAME PROBLEM!! There is much more I could add. But I really am at the end of my tether. Is there anything else I could try?

[strifehart]

Originally Posted by hsx285

THIS IS A LONG AND SAD STORY, ANY ADVICE MOST WELCOME: About 18 months ago i built a socket 754 barebones PC for my son. After a while it kept shutting down for no reason at all, so after various attempts to sort it out I decided to reinstall my copy of Windows XP home (with SP2). This seemed to make the problem worse, and after exhausting all the options I decided that it was a hardware problem, so about 6 months ago bought a new motherboard. No improvement, so I decided to buy a new hard drive this time. By this time another problem seem to arise, which is what I want help with now. Every time I use the XP installation disk to install a new copy on the (deleted partition) hard drive, it gets stuck copying certain files over from the CD to the HD, but it seemed to be the same files each time. I tried installing without these files (about 10 in all), but I was left with a host of operating problems. At this point I thought it was a problem with the CD itself, because it looked scratched. I tried various recommended methods to 'clean' it (toothpaste, brasso etc.!!), but to no avail ultimately. So finally I decided to buy a new installation CD, which I received today: and STILL THE SAME PROBLEM!! There is much more I could add. But I really am at the end of my tether. Is there anything else I could try?

try changing your processor maybe it will help

[the100thmonkey]

Well, you've gone through Motherboard and HDD.

I would tend to disagree over the processor - I think it's the memory (I seem to always be saying that these days ) - try swapping out one of the sticks and installing, if the install fails, try with the other stick.

Alternatively, you could download and burn memtest86 to a CD-R, boot to the ISO and test your RAM. Again, I'd recommend testing it one stick at a time.

Another issue could be heat - if the heatsink isn't seated properly, the CPU will overheat, which may cause random restarts like you report. It would be a good idea to check the heatsink is clear of dust and that the fan is spinning. You can also check the processor temperatures in the BIOS under the "PC Health" menu if you have an Award BIOS. It would probably be a good idea to re-seat the heatsink using some high quality thermal interface material like Arctic Silver 5. s754 processors seem to have a maximum on-die operating temperature of 70°C, although I understand there is some variability in there, depending on the CPU stepping.

Hope this helps