When powering on, before completing its boot up cycle, the PC powered off, then recycled the boot up process. Tried reinstalling Windows (hard drive reformat). Power stayed on during the approximate 40 minute reinstall process until it reached about 25 minutes left to reinstall, then it would shut down, then recycle boot up. This happens repeatedly as I have tried doing the reinstall about 5 times.

Did you format the drive yet?

Started but not finished. Power goes off before it completes the reformat process.

Is there anyway you can load the drive into another pc and format it as slave, and have you been trying to install over the OS or full format and install?

I cannot tell which type of reformat. I was hoping that it was not a full reformat. Usually when I have done a full reformat, I was asked and warned first. This time that did not happen, so I'm guessing it is a full reformat. As to oading the drive onto another computer to complete the reformat, I do not feel comfortable (knowledgeable enough) doing that. I'm guessing now that I have some type of power system failure or defect (hardware?), which I am not sure how to confirm, or what part to look to replace.

Did you see fig 9 and fig 11 from here

http://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_home_install_-_graphic.htm

No to both. Never saw "partition" mentioned.

Click the repair guide and post the point where it differs

You can use this guide to repair XP

Possibly, you will need to press the start button and keep tapping the delete key, (possibly F2) until the PC enters set up. Change the boot order to CD ROM Drive then hard drive, press F10 then press enter, load the XP CD then type Y then press enter, as it reboots, look for press any key to load from CD, press enter

You will need your XP product key to complete this

The XP Product Key is a 25 character alpha numerical code, which does not include the sequence OEM

If you have audio / video files which are subject to DRM you should check with the provider for known issues with performing an XP repair install

Click this to view the XP Repair Install Guide

Windows XP repair feature won't delete your data, installed programs, personal information, or settings. It just repairs the operating system

The XP repair install will look and run as a normal install, however, you must not see a request to format the drive

After running XP Repair you will need to install all Windows Updates

Microsoft Update

I cannot get to XP repair. As soon as the PC boots from the CD, it begins by saying "Setup is being restarted." Then, it goes to the screen where it has a column on the left side, with the following: "Collecting Information"; "Dynamic Update"; "Preparing installation"--which are already checked with a green dot. The unchecked categories on the left column are "Installing Windows" and "Finalizing Installation". These last 2 categories never have a green dot. Also, it begins this cycle by stating that Setup will complete in approximately 39 minutes. I get to the point where it says it is "completing installation", at 25 minutes left, power turns off and the computer reboots on its own--every time exactly at this point.

I do not ever get the blue screen which says "Welcome to Setup."

Does anyone think that this is possibly a hardware problem?