Wont boot or even install an OS

My pc just died today, in the middle of everything. It shut off than tried to restart, than froze at the HP screen. After about half a minute, it went on to the Windows loading screen. It hung around there for a while, thanthe second my cursor appeared, it retsarted again. Other times it didnt even get passed the HP screen. I thought it may be windows its self (altough it isnt too old of an installation). So seeing how I have 2 hdd, one storing all my media, and the other holding the OS and my programs, I thought "no big deal...ill just reinstall windows". I put in the install cd, delete my old parition, format and than start my install. It copies all the files to the hdd, than goes for a reboot. However, when my pc boots up again, it doesnt go back to installing, it goes on like nothing happened, trying to start everything all over again. I've been trying this all day and I think there were also times where the system shut down just before it could actually finish copying all of the files. But im not 100% sure about that. I figured maybe it was either my power supply or my old hd has kicked the bucket. So i unhooked it and tried to go on and install windows on the disk with all my other stuff. Same problem though. Everything freezes for a long while at the HP start up screen,,,,than goes on and boots from the cd, starts to install,copies the files, than reboots.....and starts all over again. I'm at loss. Any of you guys have any idea what may be causing me this trouble?

Thanks

 

thanks for the reply, I tried reseateing my RAM, switched hard drives and tried again. I cant download the program because I cant run anything on the machine in the first place. Also, I cant exactly unplug my sound card etc....My pc is long overdue for an upgrade (I was shooting for one mid july if i could get some money ><) because this is a pecie of crap, pentium 3, HP machine with basically everything integrated into the motherboard. Should I check my bios?

 

friends pc =/

 

unfortunately its not compatible.

 

the hard drive should be good because when i tried to install windows for the first time, and it restarted, than started over again, it recognized that there was a previous installation on the disk (That I have formatted just before the install) so it was able to write to the disk, and Windows did start loading (it just took literally minutes, to get to the loading screen)before I tried anything, it just cut out and restarted the second my cursor appeared though.

I'll try the psu in a bit (he's paranoid that something wil go wrong, so he wants to wait for his dad to get back since it's not "his" pc.)And yes, I'm still just a guy in highschool =/ who had too much free time on his hands and got hooked on tech. Sorry for all the trouble.

 

update: alright. as it turns out, I found an older powersupply around my house and hooked it up. Same problem though. Everything spins up and works, the Windows Setup can write to the hd (because when i tried to do the install again, it recognized the previous (unfinished) set up.) The DVD word becase I can use the setup cd, Power supply works because I got the same results with another one that I know works for sure. I cant check the RAM, but I do have 2 sticks of 256megs and I don't think the chances of them going out at once are too likely. (Altough it's still a possibility). I took out the 2 cards that I had in there, which were an ethernet and an extra USB 2.0/Firewire card. My video and sound is integrated onto the mobo. All the fans are spinnig as well and there is no dust in the pc. Any chance its something on the motherboard causing the problems?

 

It sounds as though your install disk is auto-booting when windows automatically reboots to continue installation, try this after windows says it is going to reboot your computer and the little red bar is counting down, press enter and immediatly go into your bios and set auto boot off then exit and save changes and it should continue installation. oh btw I'm sure you know this but when it reboots and ask you to press any key to boot from cd do not press anything leave it alone as it will continue installation on it's own.
well hope it helps and keep us posted.

 

once again, thanks for all the help . Im running memtest86 right now...its been going for about 90 mins now and found no errors so far. After it's done, (and assuming it has found nothing wrong), ill try your advice techguy.

update: I finished running memtest86, I let it run for 2 passes and it didn't find any errors. Right now im taking another shot at installing windows, with techguys advice in mind. Plus im downloading knoppix, and if the problem isn't solved by the time it's done, im gonna try and boot into my system with a Knoppix cd.

 

well something completely weird happened. I tried to install windows, but no matter how i set my or what I did, it would just boot from the cd again. When I tried to run knoppix, it was fine loading up, but when it came to actually run the system, i got nothing but noise on my screen. I tried all the video modes during its start up, but same results.....so I decided to put back my old hd and set it as Master, while setting the one I was currently trying to install windows on as a Slave. (I remembered that when I had both hard drives in, i think that was the last time it asked me if i want to boot from a cd before actually going ahead. So thats what I did. I set put in both my hard drives, put in the windows set up disc again and restarted.... and to my amazement, it has seemed to work so far. Windows continued with the install instead of starting over again and its going as I speak. Now i just have to keep hoping it doesnt die on me half way or when its finished, I dont run into the same problem.

 

good to hear your making some progress I wonder if it had something to with either a, your bios was configured to run with both harddrive attached only if thats the case once you get up and running again download any new updates for your bios which may have come out recently, it seems my motherboard updates bios every month lol, or b you have a oem version of windows 'one that was preinstalled when purchased' thats just picky and wants the same hardware to install correctly, but still that auto boot setting can be changed in bios, well once again keep us posted. and good luck!

 

alrighty....windows is up and running right now and im posting from my pc (finally). I still run into a similar problem though. First time I booted up, it shut down after a few minutes of use. The only thing that I can think of is that oit may overheat. Right now its hot as hell over here and I think I may not have enough fans in my pc to keep things cool. (I'm kinda going with a temporary set up here.....im planning on buying more fansd tomorrow or looking into watercooling maybe. I took off the side panel of my pc and aimed a big fan i had laying around beside it. Seems to work fine so far. The other thing is that I seem to have a previous install of Windows on this disk (so it seems.) so Basically its dual booting with 2 versions of windows. Xp Pro (working) and xp pro (not working) how would I be able to remove the unwated option? last but not least, I'm hoping to save up enough to be able to upgrade my mobo (and my cpu,RAM, graphics card and sound card along with it). I'm on a budget of about 400-500 CDN. Any suggestions? Im leaning towards an AMD set up and im reading some reviews on mother boards etc... right now. (if i find a set up that works ill post it here) but in the mean time, do you guys have any recommendations? I would much rather have a higher end mother board and a gig of RAM, with the graphics card taking a back seat. Thanks for all the help

 

I live in Etobicoke,so west. I'm a few minutes drive away from the woodbine racetrack/casino. (Rexdale and Islington)