Hello, I'm new to all this. I have a 7-year P3 computer which was having all sorts of problems & slowed down to a snail's pace so I decided to re-format it. I inserted the Windows XP Pro & it prompted me with diffrerent options so I chose Install Windows XP. It was going smoothly until it was in the process of installing Windows when the screen suddenly turned blue & just froze there. After waiting a while, I re-booted & it went through the same process each time. I couldn't turn it of because each time I would hard boot, it would just start up again. What can I do?

More often than not this is a memory related issue. Assuming you have more than one memory module in the machine, take out one of them and try again. Then repeat with the other one(s) if this doesn't solve it. It is also possible that the system is so old it is having hysterics at being shown XP!

I agree with lionheart....also some things you might want to consider is possiable DMA corruption or Hard Disk and/or cable.....

but the RAM issue lionheart mentioned is the most common cause

Thanks to both of you for replying. I just checked now & I have one 128 mb & one 256 mb memory. Did you mean actually taking one out & try booting up again?

What if that doesn't work? Thanks again.

pull one of the cards and try installing again, if this doesnt work install it and pull the 2nd. card and try again. You can run memtest to check your ram. Did you have XP installed previous to the re-format? Be careful of causing a static electricity discharge when pulling the ram. Unplug, hold pwr button down to bleed remaining charge and ground yourself before touching anything related to your mobo.

If these memory modules are not the same speed you will also get poor performance - which is where you started. If testing each memory module in each of the slots (slots can go bad too) proves nothing, then you may have either a bad board or a bad hard drive. Check the board for visible damage to the capacitors - any sign of bulging or discolouration is bad news. Take the drive out and connect it to another PC and run the manufacturer's diags over it - you can download them - again, it must pass the test. Sometimes a low level format will refresh a drive.