[jmayoff]

I have a store-brand P4, 3Ghz that was working swimmingly until about a week ago when it started rebooting after every half hour or so. That quickly increased to every few minutes and now, I can't even start loading my OS (winXP.) Here's what I've done so far.

• Removed all hardware devices (incl CD-roms) except the hard-drive
• Tried a different harddrive
• Installed a new power supply
• Swapped around my two 512M memory sticks, running on one or the other in both slots. (One stick came with computer, the other was purchased about a month or two ago.)
• Wiped the hd and tried re-installing windows. It starts, but then stops. Can't get past the "installing devices" portion
• Tried a different OS (Ubuntu linux)
• Tried a different OS (Debian linux)
• Tried various different BIOS setting changes (including changing HD to LARGE and resetting to fail-safe defaults)

BTW: The computer does not start its rebooting routine, unless the OS is trying to load or is being installed.
... that is to say it will remain on indefinitely on the BIOS screen -- or the occasional BSOD, which by the way says something like DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

All of this leads me to the conclusion that it's probably a hardware problem and that it's either the motherboard or the CPU (since nothing else is connected.) How can I figure out which one, without buying a new CPU or motherboard. If it's the motherboard, I don't want to have buy a second CPU.

Any help would be greatly, GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks!

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DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
The system attempted to access pageable memory using a kernel process IRQL that was too high. The most typical cause is a bad device driver (one that uses improper addresses). It can also be caused by caused by faulty or mismatched RAM, or a damaged pagefile.

http://support.micro...=810093&sd=RMVP

http://support.micro...=839876&sd=RMVP

It probably not a hardware problem at all. Did you download anything a day or two befor the problem started? Now you have gone far enough to where you need to reinstall windows. If you are using a recovery CD you may need to find a regular OEM or retail CD of XP. First i would try to use the HD makers utilities to write all zero's to the drive and then try installing from the XP cd(this does not work with a recovery CD). You will need to set the bios so that the computer first boots from the cd.

If you still cannot install windows you should try downloading the exe file at the microsoft website that will let you make a 6 floppy disk set of boot floppies. Then use them to boot the computer and switch to the cd drive to boot from the cd.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994

About halfway down on this webpage is how to do a "Steps to Clean install XP".

http://www.michaelst...nxpinstall.html

SRX660

[SRX660]

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
The system attempted to access pageable memory using a kernel process IRQL that was too high. The most typical cause is a bad device driver (one that uses improper addresses). It can also be caused by caused by faulty or mismatched RAM, or a damaged pagefile.

http://support.micro...=810093&sd=RMVP

http://support.micro...=839876&sd=RMVP

It probably not a hardware problem at all. Did you download anything a day or two befor the problem started? Now you have gone far enough to where you need to reinstall windows. If you are using a recovery CD you may need to find a regular OEM or retail CD of XP. First i would try to use the HD makers utilities to write all zero's to the drive and then try installing from the XP cd(this does not work with a recovery CD). You will need to set the bios so that the computer first boots from the cd.

If you still cannot install windows you should try downloading the exe file at the microsoft website that will let you make a 6 floppy disk set of boot floppies. Then use them to boot the computer and switch to the cd drive to boot from the cd.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994

About halfway down on this webpage is how to do a "Steps to Clean install XP".

http://www.michaelst...nxpinstall.html

SRX660

[jmayoff]

Can it be a software problem even though if I formatted my hd. The same thing happens when I try to install Linux. There is currently no OS on my HD.

[happyrock]

try puppy linux...it runs totally in ram...if that wont run you have a harware problem for sure and if you dont have alot of spare parts that you KNOW are good to swap in ...it will be difficult to figure out the problem...

http://www.puppyos.com/