Stuck XP load

[Deleted member 71337]

Here is the system I am working with:

P4 2.6g 800mhz FSB
Asus P4P800 SE with 1010 bios- most up to date- I reflashed from 1001 with dos boot.
512mb DDR 266Mhz
120gb 7200 RPM WD HD
Nvidia 5200 Vid Card
Plex CD R/RW
ThermalTake 420w PS
ThermalTake Xaser SuperTower

Was given the case by friend because he said he was having random reboots. He started the re-load the OS but he said he cannot get past a certain point. (get to that in a minute)

After hearing his description(too detailed for this), I replaced his PS with the TT PS. He was trying to run all the fans, all the above hardware and another optical drive with a 220w PS.

So here is were I am. I tried to continue the reload with a full official version of XP pro(NEWEGG). I get all the way to the first reboot where it says 39 minutes to install left... the moving dots stop after a bit and it freezes. On reboot it goes thru system hardware recognition and the randomly... goes black and reboots to start over, makes it to splash screen then freezes or reboots, makes it to "39 min left" screen and freezes.

Things I have tried. Reformating and restarting OS install (again and again), re seated everything, updated bios, swapped out with known good vid card, ram, hard drive, optical drives (removed a bad one and replaced damaged 40 pin cable), and removed CPU HS and Fan and reinstalled with Artic Silver ceramique. Tried reducing power consumption by removing all but 2 fans(CPU and I case fan). Using on board sound and no other cards installed for now.

All fans are installed on one rail and hard, optical drive, floppy drive are installed on second rail.

All bios setting cleared and defaults loaded, with CPU and ram speed checked. CPU temps are normal at 25-31 deg Celcius as read by MoBo temp gauge. All power readings are good (also according to BIOS). Tried a few different bios settings(nothing OC) but none have any affect one way or the other.


In all I am stumped. I went back 15 pages in this forum and found nothing close enough. I am concluding that either the CPU or MoBo or both are damaged from last PS. Anything I am missing? Or any suggestions?

Dan

 

[S1nF1xx]

The symptoms scream bad CD or bad RAM. Try a different OS CD, if that fails run Memtest86.

If that comes out clean, take the motherboard out of the case and hook up the CPU, RAM, videocard, HDD and optical drive. No fans (other than the HSF for the CPU of corse) no floppy, no sound cards etc and try it again.



If none of that works, and you're 100% positive you've used all working parts, the only things left are the CPU and motherboard.

 

[Deleted member 71337]

I already tried using known good parts.(first post) The install CD is already a different loader CD than was first tried.

Anyway.. I was afraid of a bad Mobo/CPU combo, that's why I was wondering if I missed something with that particular mobo. (I hate intel stuff)

Thank you though,
Dan

 

[Deleted member 71337]

I wrote off the motherboard and chip from the original post but now I am wondering about the PS. I own the TT TR2-420W. Rail one provides only 10 amps and rail 2 provides 15 amps. I noticed this after I was looking at my order history at newegg and saw a post on this PS.

Now I am thinking.. did I use the 15 amp or 10 amp rail for the power hungry stuff? They are not marked.

I assume the proc used 15 amp rail. I did remove all power consumming items from the system except CPU fan, 1 case fan and one optical drive (to install XP) so I figured that would have taken care of the possibility of overpowering the PS.

Anyone think I could have overpowered that PS with the low power setup stated above?
Dan

 

[Sieravor]

If you've replaced everything in the case and you're still having problems, it's probably the mobo. It's also possible that the CPU is overheating and is shutting down, but that usually happens within the first 30 secodns of the computer being on, and then gets faster and faster each reboot.

What you could do is check the mobo for any signs of physical damage. Odds are, especially if the old PSU was crappy, is that one or more capacitors have gone bad. Check them and see if there are any that are swollen or leaking. Mobo's will still work with bad caps, but they restart randomly and perform like crap, and ultimately fit the scenario you're describing.

Also, with everything removed and only the needed parts installed, either the 10 or the 15 amp rails should have been far more than enough to give the system the power it needs. I highly doubt you're pulling full wattage from that PSU, and if you are, with nothing installed, there is a serious serious problem.