Very odd problem

[news.microsoft.com]

Mid aged Dell running XP pro (valid if memory serves me right). Was working
fine for longer period then all of sudden starts locking up, nada to any
response except hold down on power button.

Does same in Safe mode also.

Confusing part is it also does it trying to reinstall from original cd, e.g.
no Ctrl-Alt-Del when it hangs at Partition option to delete etc. YET I had
no problem whatsoever booting to a Ubunta live cd and installing it to a
second hard disk swapped in for testing purposes. The system seems to run
fine, both off the live cd and afterwards on the intallation on hard disk.

Keep the Ubunta hard disk in and reboot using XP cd and it continued to
lockup in exact same place, reboot without cd and Ubunta comes up and runs
fine.

Anyone have any ideas at all???

I've been around a long time but have no ideas anymore as I've basically
swapped/taken out or turned off all that is in (or builtin) this unit one
can.

 

[Leonard Grey]

Could you computer be infected with malware?

Does Event Viewer offer any information?

 

[news.microsoft.com]

Could you computer be infected with malware?

Don't see how that's pertinent given it locks up when using a valid XP boot
cd on the "partition hard disk" screen (still in text mode) shortly into
installation procedure so no opportunity for that kinda crap to get running.