PC resetting on boot

[MikeyM2005]

Hi, Can anyone help me with a little problem I have

I bought a refurbished PC a few days ago for a friend and when I got it out of the box I installed an extra stick of RAM and it worked but was acting a little funny, I was working away in windows installing some virus software and uninstalling all the rubbish that came preinstalled with the PC and the explorer kept on crashing and restarting with an error coming up saying 'Error trying to run dll as app'. Then I connected the computer to the internet to download all the windows updates and they started to come down and the computer reset everytime it needed to. Then about halfway through the final install of about 31 fixes and security updates the computer just turned itself off and rebooted. I thought this was a little strange obviously and looked in the bios at the temperatures and they were fine. So I let it restart again and it loaded into windows and started the install of all the fixes again. This time it finished and said that it needed to restart, so I said ok. When it rebooted again it would get to about where the first Windows XP splash screen shows and then reset and then again and then again and then again.

Now slightly panicked I thought what could be the problem, so I checked the RAM slots and everything was in fine, I tried booting with just the original RAM - No luck, with just the new RAM - No luck, with the RAM from my own computer - No luck. I swapped out the power supply for a spare I have - again No luck. I am thinking there is a problem with either the HDD or the Windows install, but is their anything else it could be? Because it is an OEM computer I dont have the Windows disk because the next thing I would normally do is reinstall Windows and start again.

Has this happened to anyone else before? I cant boot into any mode apart from Windows Recovery console but I dont really know what I am doing in this.

Specs are
AMD Sempron 3200+
256MB DDR 3200 RAM + 256MB DDR 3200 Elixir RAM
80Gb HDD
DVD/CD RW
Onboard ATI Graphics
Windows Xp home pre installed

many thanks for any help you can give.

I am obviously still under RTB warranty but the company I will have to pay postage to get it back their and if they find nothing wrong they will charge me £50, Obviously there is something wrong but was it possibly my fault??

 

[xirokx]

did u clear cmos every time you tried diff RAM?

if the prob appeared after you installed a new stick of RAM then the fault must lie there...

Why dont u clear the CMOS....put the original RAM stick back in....and then install windows or whatever it is u wanted to do...run the machines for a few days to check its working well....to rule out the machine is not working properly....thereafter then insert the new RAM stick and tackle these issues thereafter?

 

[MikeyM2005]

No i didnt clear the cmos when I changed the RAM. I didnt realise I needed to. I can try that later on.

I dont know whether or not it was the new RAM that caused the problem because I installed the RAM before I had even turned the computer on.

I installed an extra stick of RAM and it worked but was acting a little funny

What I meant by this was that when I turned it on the computer was working but that error appeared. I have run a memory test on the mem and it appears to be fine.