Dell XPS 720 crashing/freezing during HD reformatting/installation of XP

[Beour1]

Hello,
I have an XPS 720 that recently started freezing during installation of any program. I figured it may be the HD so I bought a new one, except now the computer freezes during the reformatting phase. Once I get passed that after several attempts, it freezes during XP installation. If I get by that, it freezes during the installation of any other programs.

Unfortunately, I cant see all the specs on my computer atm since I am going through the reformatting again...I know I have a NVIDIA Vid card. I have not overclocked the system and the computer appears to receive power with no problem,

Thanks for any help you can offer!

 

[ccumbie2889]

Maybe you can try taking the video card out and using the integrated graphics for the installation, and see if that helps. Also check your processor temp if possible. I have an old server board that has dual Pentium II processors at 333 MHZ, and one of the processors would get too hot, and the whole system would lock up during installation of Windows NT. (I know, it's old, but that's not the point). Try taking an Ubuntu (or any other Linux distro), and run from the live CD/DVD. Maybe you can isolate the problem since it won't be touching the hard drive, maybe the SATA hard drive controller is having issues? If it is, just buy a PCI/PCI-E SATA controller card. If you have an IDE hard drive, have you tried using it just as a test? Also run Memtest86+ from the Linux disc, and check your RAM just in case.

 

[Beour1]

Reseating my all my RAM seemed to fix the problem.

Thanks!