Originally posted by: mechBgon Troubleshooting starter
Overview of the problem
System refuses to boot into Windows XP Home SP2, BSODs constantly.
Full description of the problem and symptoms
Three year old rig, so I realize it's probably nearing the end of it's life cycle, just thought I'd look for some general ideas before I send it to the graveyard. Details of the rig are posted below.
Few weeks ago I decided to give her a good cleanin'. I do this every few months. However, this time I forgot to pull the AC from the PSU before I did so ( oh, and I didn't properly ground myself... yeah, I know ). Attempted to boot it back up when finished, but was given the ominous beep indicating a toasted video card. Alright, figured the thing was ancient, overclocked, and chronically overheated. Picked up a new videocard, installed, system worked perfectly for a few weeks.
Fast forward a few weeks, get back from a vacation, notice Windows has downloaded some updates it would like to install. I authorize the install. Funny thing is, it says a few of them "failed" install. I've never actually seen this before. Meh, whatever, clicked "yes" to restart. Get a GPF on winlogon.exe. Rut roh, hope it restarts okay. No dice.
At this point it went into what looked like chkdsk or somesuch, ran for quite some time then gave me a BSOD. The codes on the blue screen indicated corrupted registry entries. Tried rebooting the machine a few more times, sometimes it would get to the windows splash screen ( the one w/ the status bar indicating it's loading, before the login screen ) and just sit there, HDD making an unusual chugging sound. If it didn't make it to the status bar screen, it would just BSOD. I attempted to boot into safe mode, to a prompt, all of the boot options. The machine would fail at every turn. Farthest I made it was a GPF on lass.exe(sp?) then another BSOD.
Okay, my windows install is corrupt, I'll reformat and reinstall. First attempt BSOD'd when "checking for windows installations". Second attempt made it past this point, reformatted, began installing windows and when prompted that it was about to reboot did so. Throughout the windows install process it frequently prompted me to insert the windows CD, as it claimed it couldn't copy a file. After one or two "retries", it would continue on it's merry way. It made it into the initial windows setup screen then gave me another BSOD. It was at this point that I gave up and powered the 'ol girl down.
Did it work normally at one time, or has the problem always existed?
The rig has worked normally for 3 years, during which it has been on probably 90% of the time. Only chronic problem has been high GPU temps.
Is the problem consistent and repeatable, or entirely random, or semi-random?
Semi-random, as per the above description.
I already tried these steps:
Attempted a reformat and clean install of Windows.
My software:
Windows XP SP2/I])
Norton AV Corporate
Linksys, Windows XP
Northbridge fan died on the Asus Mobo almost immediately after purchase. Never replaced it, instead setup a PCI card fan which seemed to keep the temps within reasonable limits.
it can happen, had a motherboard work for 4 months before 2 caps that were swelled up finally quit, was using it as a test to see how long a system could operate with bad capacitors.
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