Windows XP - Crash and Install Failure

[BuddhistPunk]

Does anybody have any suggestions for this problem?

I have a machine with the following spec :
Win XP SP2
Athlon XP 2100+
2 x 512mb SD RAM
GeForce2 MX 400

Recently while launching a game the machine crashed silently (i.e. just shutdown and started to full reboot). If I try and start the machine in normal mode it gets to the desktop, last about 5 seconds and then crashes silently again.

The machine could do with a reformat so I thought I would kill two bird with one stone. When I boot from the Windows XP cd it starts the installation process (i.e. copies the initial files etc), but when it gets to a blue screen titled "Windows Setup" and "Setup is starting windows" on the bottom *, it crashes silently again.

The machine will always boot into safe mode (including with network support) without any problems.

I have:
- checked the event logs and there is nothing in there
- updated all the drivers

I have tried searching for this problem but the only thing that comes up is compatibility issues with the motherboard or hard drive. Considering this machine and all its hardware is 2 years old and has always run Windows XP I doubt this is the issue.

* This screen is the one displayed before the installer detects previous version of windows or prompts for the drive to install on etc

[Grimmda]

A bad memory module? Maybe some other bad component? You game on that box? If you do end up getting more RAM get out of that SD RAM and atleast drop a few bones on a decent vid card.

If you have the spare parts start with swapping out the RAM and going from there.

[Phoenix86]

Failing setup indicates bad hardware or BIOS settings. More often than not it's bad RAM/PSU, esp with your scenario.

Are you OCing? If so stop, you can't TS properly when OCing, same with "tight" memory timings.

Check RAM with memtest86+ for several hours/overnight. Any errors=failure.

What are your temps/voltages?

Good luck.