Freezing on Windows XP boot up

[exodus045]

well the problem all began with one of my friends computers that kept on freezing on her every 5-10 minutes well doing basic things like talking on msn, e-mails etc. She is running Windows 2000.

Well i was on looking threw her computer doing virus scan and all that good stuff well it found nothing so i found some old memory from my other computer and upgraded it from 128MB to 256MB RAM but yet again it kept on freezing every 5-10 minutes. So then i went on and formated the computer and used my retail Windows XP disk well installing the new OS it was begining to freeze after the format so i thought it has to be a hardware problem so i began taking out hardware and try the computer again and every time it would freeze.

Hardware i replaced:

-Videocard
-RAM
-Network card
-Modem
-Cd Roms
-Power supply
-Floppy disk drive
-Hard Drive

*All these parts were taken from my other computer which is fully operational.

another attempt to get the computer to boot was to install XP on my home computer then bring her hard drive to her computer and see if it would be any good. Well during the boot sequence of XP well the white bar loads up just as its finishing it would freeze yet again. I even went as far as cloning my hard drive and trying it with no success.

Well my last attempt was to reset the Cmos and turning off advance power saving options in the BIOS but it still would not boot. The computer does not even boot in safe mode. So now i'm out of ideas and come here for any other advice.

here are her computer specs:
(its a older IMB computer)

-AMD Duron 600Mhz
-256MB PC133 RAM
-60GB Hard drive
-TNT 2 16MB video card AGP
-Generic powersupply 350watts

Don't know the motherboard model all i know its a IBM make. As soon as i found out i will edit this post.

Sorry for the long post and thanks for any advice/help with this problem.

 

[waylander]

If it's not a software problem and you've checked all the hard ware devices listed then it's probably either heat related or the motherboard.

Can you confirm that all the fans are running and what the temperatures are? Also, see if you can take her motherboard and load it up with known good components and see what happens.

Those specs are also right on the minimum for XP to operate and might be a close call for 2000 (basically the same as XP but XP has more graphical (pretty) interface)... have you tried 98?

 

[sailer]

I'd vote for a motherboard problem, though there is always the chance that the psu is not keeping up. As Waylander wrote, heat is often the cause of problems like this, but age of the system can also cause things to break down. Best thing might be to stop trying to keep this very old design computer running. Give it a decent burial and step up to something a little newer.

 

[exodus045]

Can you confirm that all the fans are running and what the temperatures are? Also, see if you can take her motherboard and load it up with known good components and see what happens.

have you tried 98?

i have checked all the fans and i reapplied the thermal compound using some ocz ultra 5+ silver thermal compound and all the temps feel find when i touch the heatsink also the heatsinki is sitting perfectly in place.

I was thinking about putting on 98 but i don't have access to a copy of such OS.

I'd vote for a motherboard problem, though there is always the chance that the psu is not keeping up.

i replaced her powersupply with a extra one i have a 500watt aspire PSU

Link to powersupply: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=905179&Sku=A107-2000

Yes i agree the system is old and its time to put it to rest but their family does not have the income at the time to afford a new computer so i was hoping to try some new ideas before submitting it to retirement.

 

[ipwnzu]

initially, looking at the system spec and guessing the age of the hardware, i thought maybe the fans are old and need a bit of oil, but you said you already checked and theyre spinning just fine... are you sure they dont slow down a few seconds before a crash? i doubt your northbridge has a fan btw, but that fans the main cause of an old home pc to suddenly stop working in my experience 🙁

i know this may sound stupid, but have you tried a bios update? or even just reflashing to the same version bios? just a thought 😳

 

[exodus045]

the next thing i'm going to try is to replace the cpu fan with the one i have on my athlon XP 2500+ the Thermaltake volcano 12 extreme. It kept my cpu very cool so it should do wonders for that little cpu.

The Northbridge does not have a fan just a very small heatsink and yes i did flash the bios with no luck on getting it to boot.

I'm starting to think the motherboard is on its last life

 

[Intel_King]

It might be the memery card competability prob, try using the old memery card :lol:

 

[b_diddy_t]

kept on freezing on her every 5-10 minutes

the white bar loads up just as its finishing it would freeze yet again.

Can you describe whether by "freezing" you mean it would:

1. Completely stop with the picture frozen on the screen and you have to reboot to clear it.
2. Stop and then start again after a little bit.
3. Computer reboots itself.
4. Computer turns off.

Aside from that, have you looked at the motherboard's capacitors?? A motherboard of that age is ripe for blown caps.

Capacitors are cylinders (green maybe?) standing on their end all over the mainboard. There are probably about 20 of them all together in various sizes. If they are ok, the top of the cylinder should be flat with a cross or a letter "k" indented into it.

If they are not ok they will either be swollen (the top will be bulging upwards) and/or there will be brown stuff on top like it leaked out of the cross mark and dried there.

If even a single one of the caps are bad, this will cause freezing/restarting.