Windows not booting

dandan556 · 26 Apr 2006 at 21:16

My friend has just recently got hold of a fairly old PC, however when he turned the PC on for the first time it would just restart on the Windows XP loading screen.
Now, i thought reinstalling Windows XP would solve this problem, unfortuantly while installing he get's the BSOD everytime he attempts to reinstall.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

SexyGreyFox · 26 Apr 2006 at 21:45

Have you formatted the c:\ drive and started from scratch?

dandan556 · 26 Apr 2006 at 21:46

While installing windows it prompts you to format the drive, so yeah.

SexyGreyFox · 26 Apr 2006 at 22:08

The installation prompts you to do several things but I'll accept that you have formatted.
It sounds like a hardware problem but which bit of hardware is anybody's guess.
If you can unplug anything you don't need that would be a start eg spare cdrom, floppy, modem, anything plugged into the USB ports, use the graphics on the motherboard and take the graphics card out etc.
Obviously some of that stuff will not apply.

Pyrosoft · 26 Apr 2006 at 22:14

Hardware problem then methinks.

open it up, take the memory out, give it a wee dust down and put it back again.

If it's an old PC then there is every chance that it is just a buildup of dust on the motherboard or RAM so that would be the first thing to look for.

SexyGreyFox · 26 Apr 2006 at 22:34

I had to get the vacuum cleaner to my daughters PC last night because the machine kept turning off.
It ended up being the fan on the graphics card that was full of thick dust and not turning.

Yucca · 26 Apr 2006 at 23:02

I usually find that when this happens it is the ram thats not happy. But as said above, it could be other bits of hardware to. Id try the ram as first port of call.