Major XP problems - reinstall doesn't help

[SKiNFreak]

I am at the end of my rope with my system. My system was functioning until I changed PC cases. I am particular about anti-static wrist straps etc and take the usual precautions. Previously, my PC was slowish but I think that it just needed a reformat. Post case change, I have had several odd errors. It led me to reformat the hard disk and since I wanted more space, I bought a new 250GB SATA drive.

I get all manner of BSOD errors, usually surrounding sysdata.xml and some other file, and I am most prone to it when I use DVDDecrypter, MS Word or Nero. Since they are mainly the only progs on my drive I cannot be sure if it is flaky with everything or not. And also, the computer screen goes black and restarts automatically with no warning. Thinking it was the drive; I installed on my new SATA and get the same issue. I have installed SP2 and still the same issue. I have also had GPF errors: C0000005 occurred in module ACSUI.DLL @ O2EA83CD and failed to initiaise properly when installing AOL 9. And now the weirdest thing is that when I try to reinstall I get an error in the process that says the file copied to the hard disc is incorrect. If I hit enter to retry, the file is copied on the second try with no problems but this is obviously having a serious effect.

In order to trouble shoot this, I have tried everything. Tried two different gfx cards, two different hard disks, installed using separate optical drives, different memory configurations. The only thing that seems (and I say seems with some scepticism) is that I stripped the system down so that only the gfx card, DVD drive and hard disk were connected and the errors seemed less frequent. I still couldn't install AOL but I didn't get kicked out of windows with now warning as regular.

So the way I see it, it is either;

a) motherboard - maybe damaged in the move process
b) PSU

Any ideas? Full spec;

AMD 2500
768mb PC 3200 (kingmax)
Abit KT7 KT600 motherboard
80gb IBM PATA
205gb Hitachi SATA
NEC 2500A DVDRW
Leadtek Geforce4 Ti-4400 256mb ram
420W Thermaltake PSU


Thanks peeps....

[turkster]

Could be flaky memory? Problems copying files during install can be due to memory errors .

Did you try running Memtest?

[SKiNFreak]

Oh yeh....done Memtest and used two differnet brands of memory on thier own. Not memory as far I can tell.

[Tifosi]

Tried a different AOL disk?

[yamangman]

Sounds more like a software or driver issue to me. Just do a vanilla install and then work with your computer like that. Install software and drivers bit by bit and see when the problem starts cropping up.

[Superkev6969]

Hello
I had a lot of trouble when I moved my pc from one case for another. Installing the original PSU improved matters but boot up was very slow until I replaced the motherboard when the northbridge chip fused to the Zalman heatsink.
I suspect my MB NB was drawing excessive power so different PSUs coped better or worse making me think it was a psu issue.

Suggest u try the original PSU and see if thinks improve also mahe sure your heat sinks are still fitted correctly as I have found that it is impossble to boot if the CPU heatsink is not fitted correctly.

Hope this helps

Kev

MSI 865PEfisr/P4-3.0/Saphire 9800pro/512DDR (Was 845pe-fisr2)

[DaftpuNk]

Reseat that RAM and tell us if memtest came up with any errors at all. Also, can you vouch for the validity of your windows install CD? I am perfectly sure that you're using a legal copy, but is your media fine?

[SKiNFreak]

Ummm....I ran memtest after reseating the memory so I think it is fine. And the media works fine on another system. To check, I used a copy of Win2000 to see if that could get through the install and it still threw up errors with regard to errors in the copied files. Now what are the odds of that happening?

I am really starting to think that it is my mobo....gonna try reseating the CPU and checking the northbridge fan too.

[yamangman]

Did you do what I suggested? So you're saying as soon as the install process for Windows 2000 is finished, and your booted up and logged in you start getting these error's, without installing any drivers/software?

[SKiNFreak]

Did you do what I suggested? So you're saying as soon as the install process for Windows 2000 is finished, and your booted up and logged in you start getting these error's, without installing any drivers/software?

Well, now I cannot even do a vanilla install. The process halts and doesn't finish. To cap it off, I had to reset my CMOS for no real reason....I am gonna try a different PSU and if it doesn't work, then it's RMA time.....