Friends computer has gone mad...please help**updated**

[tizodq]

here's the deal:

he said he uninstalled limewire and then restarted his computer. when it was booting back up it would just restart. so i go over there and take a look at it. what it was doing was booting up in winxp......just after the initial boot up screen left and it starts to bring in the gui, it restarts. so i was thinking just format the hard drive because he didn't have anything important on it. when i did that it would it would load all those drivers at first, then restart again. after a couple more restarts it started giving me errors like this

Problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to permit damage to your computer

stop (0x0000005, 0x8088eac9, 0xf8984f88, 0x00000000)

usb.sys

and on another restart i got

driver_irql_not_less_or_equal

stop (0x000000d1, 0xe117c004, 0x0000002, 0x00000001, 0xf84bffcf)

setupdd.sys address f84bffcf base at f84a1009 Datestamp 3d6dd67f


so i decided to start swapping out parts with parts from one of my extra computers. I swapped out the hard drive, video card....took out the sound card and network and i was still getting the same errors.

My only other guess is that his motherboard is fried or something. he has the epox EP-8K5A2 with an AMD 2000+. i don't think its the power supply just because its rebooting at the same time everytime. anyone have any ideas??

 

[wizdum]

check ide cables make sure they are nice and tight.

anything overclocked? if so, don't.

remove all usb devices see if that works.

try different pci slots for different cards.

 

[teerex20]

Did you try swapping memory?,try putting in a different stick.

 

[tizodq]

i didn't try the memory yet. but why would it be fine all the way up to it starts to boot up?

all the ide cables are nice and tight as i double checked those

i uplugged the usb device and stuck it in the ps2 part with an adapter

 

[wizdum]

i uplugged the usb device and stuck it in the ps2 part with an adapter

and did that work? if not, leave it out completely.

one time, my memory was overheating and i got those exact irq not less or equal errors. and it seems like since it reboots right at startup the memory is getting hot at the same time, which would be believable.

Problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to permit damage to your computer

maybe something is overheating and that is xp's way of saying if i dont shut this sys down it will burn up. something.. to hot.

 

[tizodq]

alright, ill give the memory a try tomorrow and see if that works

i have an extra stick in my computer and ill put it in

 

[tizodq]

i think the processor got fried.....

everything turns on....all the fans and what not except the monitor doesn't turn on. everything is connected fine

i had the same problem and it turned out to be the processor....

so is this a good assumption to be making, i took out the chip and nothing seems fried, but the core seemed to be only covered about 3/4 by that goop on the heatsink