I'm looking for some help please. My computer was giving me lots of BSOD, slowed/stuck bootups and errors originated from \Device\Harddisk0\D in my event viewer. My hard drive failed generic long tests and had bad clusters so I got a new hard drive, installed it with XP and it was fine for a week. Then my computer would boot to a blank screen and wouldn't boot in safe mode.

So I yesterday reinstalled XP again and now it's staying on the XP loading screen but never actually loading. Safe boot got stuck as soon as I went into event viewer. I managed to get it to start up normally just now, and I am seeing these errors in event viewer:

-Error, event ID 11: The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\D.
-Warning event ID 51: An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation.
-Error, event ID 7001: The DHCP Client service depends on the NetBios over Tcpip service which failed to start because of the following error: A device attached to the system is not functioning.
(That same error repeats, only instead of DHiverCP/NetBios, it's DNS Client/TCP IP Protocol Driver and IPSEC.)
-Error, event 7026: The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load: Aavmker4, AFD, AmdK8, AsIO, asuskbnt, aswSP, aswTdi, Fips, IPSec, MRxSmb, NetBIOS, NetBT, ohci1394, RasAcd, Rdbss, Tcpip.

Does this appear to be a hardware issue or is there a problem with the copy of Windows I obtained? I'm so frustrated, I almost want to buy a premade from Dell and forget about it. My current system specs: Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe mobo, AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+, 4 GB Corsair 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM.

Please help!

It appears that you have a nice system, if you can get it back to normal.
We have to suspect other hardware, since two hard drives have similar symptoms... but you may have copied evil stuff from the one drive to the other. How did you transfer files? Or an infestation.
What did you use to scan your system for virus and spyware infestations?
Have you carefully checked your cables... or even tried replacing them temporarily?
Examine all sockets for dirt and debris, and clean your system thoroughly but carefully.
You may need to rule out some things that do not seem part of the problem... as it may be a long and slow process to figger out where the problem is... I would start, if the drive will work well enough, by running MemTest86 for four hours or seven passes, which ever is longer... or removing half the memory to test the other half, then switching.
We always suspect the cables first. They can fail and look good.
Any defective hardware part can cause problems elsewhere if the conditions are right... so I would begin by making a check list, then trading out everything on the list... video card, modem even if not used, ethernet connection or software, .
I would also try another drive and cable... any other drive, even using the first drive, fully reformatted and reinstalled with Windows and basic software....
Windows will not normally cause these of problem, but if you have scratches or smudges that would make it difficult to read, then you could theoretically introduce errors... unlikely though that is.
You could have an optical drive error that is not seeing the software properly.
But it is also possible that your Asus board, good as it is, has a defect.

No, I don't believe I transferred any viruses. On my old computer, I had Avast, ZoneAlarm, Spybot and Spyware Blaster. When I installed my new hard drive, I went nuts with getting different antivirus, antispyware and antikeylogging programs from CNET and nothing was found. On the same external HDD, I did backup my old C: drive, but I only transferred my music, documents, pictures and video. I got a different copy of XP to install for the new drive that is on a burned disc from my friend, which I wonder if could bear any blame. (I didn't have my original discs still.)

Checking all my hardware sounds like an unfun arduous process! I just ordered new SATA cables from NewEgg so I can see if that helps. I'll buy some cans of compressed air too. I'll run the RAM test in a little bit and/or switch out the RAM -- now that I got my computer on I am scared to turn it off for fear it won't start again. My problems with my old drive began about a month after I got a new case and new RAM. Could the case itself be a problem, or just bad connections? I will start checking all this stuff and report back! Thank you!

Did your first hard drive receive its installation from the same friend's disks, even though they are different install disks?

Your problem is rather unusual. So we have to make some guesses while looking over everything.

We cannot imagine how a case can be the problem, unless it has uneven power issues

Please consider installing and scanning with SuperAntiSpyware, and MalWareBytes in addition to Avira and perhaps Windows Defender, if it will load. Spyware Blaster is ok, but not up to these two... and Spybot is pretty much worthless for anything other than cookies. Each spyware program can discover different evils.

Actually checking all the hardware with a strong LED flashlight should only take 20 or 15 minutes... arduous, maybe, but so is dealing with this problem over and over. You probably will not find a quick fix. We are only guessing on equipment, but we have seen cable failures and connection failures cause great damage that is difficult to discover later... SATA cables have a tradition of stability, but lately, certainly in the last 10 months, we have seen large numbers of reports of failures and odd installs traced back to SATA cables and connectors. We are only looking for intermittent failures which could have interferred with a clean install... Ribbon cables and connectors were infamous for this.

I would run the free MemTest86 on each RAM module that has been around since the first problem started, and run it for a full four hours or seven passes.

You might consider pulling the cpu fan, and assure that there is neither too much nor too little thermal paste between the cpu fan assembly and the cpu. Thermal paste can act as an insulator.

Clearly, we are grasping at straws, but sometimes rethinking a problem can be useful.

One last guess: Are the hard drives identical brands and models: About nine months ago we saw similarly strange failures on installs to SATA Drives by Seagate, and by Western Digital. It turned out the drives were faulty and were replaced... but nobody paid for the time and stress of tracking down the problem... But in those cases, replacement drives were identical Seagates, or identical WD.

Hi again. To answer your questions...

-My friend had access to a volume license of Windows Pro because he was a tech guy for a large office. He installed it for me on my original SATA. The copy of XP I got for my replacement SATA is a different one that is not licensed, but I was able to tweak it to let me install Windows updates anyway.
-I did have Windows Defender and MalwareBytes on my old drive, but admittedly didn't use them that much. I never had any problems though. With the exception of Avast alerting me there were viruses in torrent downloads a couple times, I don't think I ever randomly scanned and found anything.
-The drive and replacement drive are identical as far as brand, model and capacity, but they were manufactured in different countries, I noticed. I did intentionally try to get the exact same drive. My first drive lasted five years -- I can't imagine the drive is what's faulty.

I am about a half hour into my RAM test, doing one stick at a time. So far, no problems. I didn't get that compressed air today, so I'll have to tomorrow and try to clean around. I hope my new SATA/power cable arrives soon so I can replace that. I also ordered some anti-static wrist straps because I never used anything when going inside my computer and now I'm wondering whether I should've!

BTW, I did run Seagate's diagnostic tool yesterday and my drive passed both the long and short test. When I tried to run SMART, it said "failed," but I'm not sure if that meant the SMART couldn't initiate or if it failed a test. Other SMART programs didn't show any problems.

I very much appreciate your interest in helping me diagnose this. I agree, I do have a good system and I hate to see it go to waste. A few years ago I had problems I couldn't figure out the source of so I simply replaced everything. Times are tough and I'm laid off -- I can't really do that!

I'll let you know how things go tomorrow!

Well, I ran 7 hour RAM tests and everything was fine. No errors on the RAM. My computer did get stuck on the loading screen booting up right after the test so I turned it off and restarted and got it in OK... and I kept it on since I am scared it will hang if I reboot. No event viewer errors on the hang though. I think the hard drive is fine -- I am waiting on new HDD cables. Everything looks OK inside though. Good ventilation, no overwhelming dust bunnies.The RAM and video card seem to get hot, but I dunno if that's a problem. How would I identify if there is something wrong with the motherboard or processor or something else?

You wouldn't be able to tell anything useful about the heat unless you can buy or borrow a thermal sensor that can read temperatures from several inches a day.
You cannot "think the drive is OK" really... but most of the hard drive manufacturers except Toshiba have online drive test software that works quickly and is free.

No, I tested my drive and it passed both short and long tests. I'm trying to narrow things down since RAM and HDD are okay. I think motherboard, processor and cables need to be checked but I'm not sure how I could try to check mobo and cpu.

It was apparently a bad hard drive cable. I replaced the SATA cable and boot times have been fast and no lock-ups or errors in the event viewer.

Thank you for the update.
We are seeing huge numbers of defective SATA cables this year... even the expensive name brand ones...
You will note that cables was in the fourth sentence of my first reply.