[wannabe1]

Now we're getting somewhere...

How old is this machine?

[Advertisements]

Ive had it for about two years.

[Chris_UK]

Ive had it for about two years.

[wannabe1]

If you have an office supply store in your area, pick up a can of compressed air and use it to clean out all the vent areas on the machine. If there are access panels on the bottom of the machine near any of the vents, open them and clean as much dust and whatever else may be in there out.

Also look at the fan(s)...make sure they are spinning up when you turn the machine on...you should be able to hear them if you can't see them. Prop the screen end of the machine up on a book or something to increase the airflow under the machine.

An overheating processor will give all the symptoms you have right now and the errors DO indicate a hardware problem.

[Chris_UK]

Ok, i also saw something called Speed Fan in your signature, is it worth getting that?

[wannabe1]

SpeedFan is more a diagnostic tool that allows you to monitor the temperatures and voltages. Once the machine is running, yes...we can use it to see just how hot the machine is getting.

[Chris_UK]

Ok thanks for the help so far, ill be back soon im just going to grab some dinner quick

[wannabe1]

I'll be around here somewhere...in between periods of chasing the lawnmower around the yard...

[Chris_UK]

Yeh im back, sorry i was so long

[Chris_UK]

I cleaned out the vent areas, but there is still a problem. Hasnt made any difference, windows still doesnt load

[wannabe1]

Does it feel like it's getting as hot as it was? Without know how hot is was getting, I'm hoping the processor of other hardware hasn't been damaged.

Try booting into safe mode again...does it go past the screen (black with white text) where it loads files? If it does, what is the last screen it gets to. If it stops on the text screen, what is the last file in the list?

[Chris_UK]

It gets past the black screen with the white writing, but it loads REAL slow, and then another blue screen comes up, and it reboots

[wannabe1]

Still no "beep"?

Try booting to the cd again...watch for the prompt to "Press any key to boot from cd" and when you see it, press the spacebar.

We'll try this one screen at a time if it will boot this way...Let me know if it boots.

[Chris_UK]

It doesnt even ask for a disk, i put boot frfom CD as number 1. It just carries on booting from HD

[wannabe1]

Do you have access to a different XP installation cd?

This is still a hardware issue, I just don't know which it is. I'm starting to lean towards the hard drive. If it were the RAM, you should get a series of beeps. If the processor was bad, it shouldn't even post or load as far as it does. What's confusing me is the inability to boot to the cd.

Do you have any external devices connected? Mouse, keyboard, flash drive...anything?

[Chris_UK]

I have no external devicees attached, and i dont have access to a different windows xp installation disk at this moment