PC shuts down at WinXP startup, can't reinstall WinXP

[tweak89]

Having a major problem. Re-built a PC for someone:
*new*ECS M400 board
*new*512mb DDR
Kyro II 64mb vid-card
Western Digital 40gb HD
Lite-On DVD burner
32X CD-Rom
56k modem
AC97 onboard sound
1ghz Athlon

Went to boot up just to make sure everything worked and it would get to the XP slpash screen (with the blue staus bar). As soon as it tried to initialize the desktop/log-on screen it would shut down immediatley.

Booted from the WinXP cd to do a new install. Made it to the "ready to install" screen (options to press ENTER oto install, repair etc..). It dies immediatley if you press enter.

Removed the HD and placed it in another PC and did a quick format. Placed back into case, tried to install from the CD again...same result.

Apparently the boot sector on the HD remains as when I tried to boot up it said something to the effect of "NTDLSR.??? not found ctrl+alt+del to restart"

After all this I discovered that it (previous XP install) may have been infected with a form of the sasser virus (lsasse.exe errors). So do I need to do a full format, and could this be causing the shutdowns whenever it tried to boot originally and now when it tries to access the HD to do a fresh install?

Whew!! That was a mouthful!!

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[zephead]

look to your bios settings. remember to disable cpc override, if given the option. if you truly think it's the hdd then download and run a utility that wipes the drive completely.

 

[tweak89]

Well, the final score is in: Computer 1, ME 0!!!

I removed the HD and stuck it in my PC. Removed the partition, then formatted the drive to NTFS. Reinstalled and booted up the pc to the HD just to make sure it didn't try to find any files...check...got an invalid system disk error (which is what I wanted). Tried to install XP. Same result, got the ready to install screen and ZAP!!! Then tried to install Win2k Pro just to see if it was XP that it didn't like...ZAP!!!

Then, as a last resort, I used the bootable XP disc with the HD disconnected....got the windows startup screen....ZAP!!!

I have no earthly idea what could be causing this. I've put together/worked on plenty of PC's over the years and have never seen a problem like this!!

I took the PC back to it's owner and recommended they have the new Motherboard checked out, because I checked everything I could.

 

[zephead]

getting rid of the extra unneeded perhiperals usually helps, or at least narrows it down. ever tried swapping video cards?

 

[logo5961]

have you tried getting somebody to download the microsoft ram diagnostic tool and running it i had a similar problem and found i had an LRAND failure on 1 memory stick

 

[dreck]

I would do as zephead says.... remove all the hardware you dont need.
All you need is the hdd, cdrom, mouse, & keyboard...... take everything else out!

 

[zephead]

that failure is from the test that randomly writes random data to the memory. go into your bios and set your memory timings to less demanding values, or swap out sticks and see if that fixes it.