OS failures on my dad's computer

[netloss]

I bought a cheap refurb HP for my dad and set it up for him, with XP Pro. It's an AMD system with 512 meg, 120 gig hd, maybe an AMD 1800+ proc.

He had a couple instances where XP Pro failed to boot. I checked it out, and safe mode wouldn't work; I had to repair XP from the CD both times.

After this happened twice, I realized something was very wrong either with part of the system, or the install of the OS. I took the opportunity to convert him to SuSE Linux, which I am just learning. However, after a few days, he had a very similar problem to what he'd had with XP: One day the Linux kernel failed to boot, and things were screwed up. My Linux knowledge is still minimal, but I think it was hosed.

I now believe this is a hardware problem. It seems most likely to me that the HD is the culprit. I believe it may be getting corrupted periodically, and boot info gets damaged. But it couled also be the cruddy HP mobo. For now I have replaced the HD and reinstalled SuSe, and will see if the problem recurs.

I'm wondering if anyone else has any opinions on what might be happening, and any recommendations on how to test or verify what the actual problem is.

TIA!!

 

[n0cmonkey]

I'd test the ram and replace the cable to the hard drive.

 

[hjo3]

Yeah, very much sounds like memory problems to me. Get Memtest86 and do a c-1-2-2-3-0 loop on it.

 

[Yanagi]

much like what the other told you, memory and hardrives seems to be the culprit here.

 

[Jiggz]

Like it's not enough yet, ram and hdd! Try swapping them with known working components and you'll find out.