PC Freezing during BIOS, POST.... XP...

[Doc_Uzuki]

Today I went to Update XP Pro on our company's old server PC. During the update, it froze and I restarted it. From there, lots of bad things started to happen...

1) First it froze during the memory check
2) It then froze after it went through everything else, just before Windows normally loads.
3) It froze in the BIOS numerous times... sometimes I could be in for 2 minutes, other times within 5 seconds.
4) When it manages to get to Windows, all it displays is a black screen.
5) I cannot manage to boot from the XP CD

I need some suggestions on which hardware component is most likely to blame.

Like I said, it is an old (and I believe) custom built PC. 1ghz P3, 128mb Ram, 4gb HDD, Toshiba DVD-Rom. I will have to crack it open to see what else is inside it. I am about to go use memtest86 and IBMs HDD tester but thought I would get this up here to see what people think.

Thanks,
Tom

 

[Doc_Uzuki]

Problem solved?

I think I might have found out what the problem was...

I left the PC off while posting and when I returned, it booted fine. I then went into the BIOS to check the CPU Temp which was at 38C. I continued watching it and within 8 minutes it went up to 86C before freezing up again. So I think I am going to start there

 

[Tedster]

ok, it can be one of 3 problems:

1. your CPU fan is not turned on or is faulty or not set to auto

2. your thermal sensor is faulty on your motherboard (RMA the motherboard)

3. you aren't using thermal grease between your fan and cpu.