:: WEIRDDD ... any help plz

[Snyper007]

ok bear with me on this one b/c i am totally stumped...

My friend calls me and says his comp is not working ( Windows XP P4
2.0 mhz, pci vid card 1Gig ram... ) thinks its his processor, wants to
try mine out. When he boots up his computer get to the windows xp
screen, just after boot.. then before it shows u the welcome screen it
shows the BSoD and resets and begins to boot all over again.

1. we try his processor in computer.. runs my machine fine... no
problems.
2. we try my processor in his computer... his doesen't work
3. we assumed at this point it was his motherboard.. we bought a new
one and installed... now we cant even get his computer to engage the
monitor
4. we replacede power supplys, processors, and memory sticks at this
point to try and weed any of that out. no luck.

heres where it gets weird.. we decide to try his components 1 by 1 in
my machine ( Winodws XP Pro 2.8 mhz P4 1 gig ram)

1 we put his video card into my machine... and bam i get the reset on
MY machine just like his was doing.. I say ok ... must be the video
card... put my card back in .. SAME thing !

2. maybe we got the processors mixed up? swapped them out .. same
thing only insted of reset.. i get the BSoD this time.. so we swap the
processors back. And wtih a reboot with all of my original equip it is
now doing the exact same thing his computer was doing.

Dinner..

OK so we decide to try his hard drive with my comp... it boots fine
!!!!!! WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF? ( pulling hair out )

put my Hard Drive back in ... same error...

put his Hard Drive back in ... boots fine..

ok .. his HD is good.. put it into his machine and it resets
again!!!!!

WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?

please help as i ma totally lost... seem like something is burning up
? we worked on it for well over 12 hours, got no sleep , my girlfriend
dumped me and im living on the streets now.... please help

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

ok bear with me on this one b/c i am totally stumped...

My friend calls me and says his comp is not working ( Windows XP P4
2.0 mhz, pci vid card 1Gig ram... ) thinks its his processor, wants to
try mine out. When he boots up his computer get to the windows xp
screen, just after boot.. then before it shows u the welcome screen it
shows the BSoD and resets and begins to boot all over again.

1. we try his processor in computer.. runs my machine fine... no
problems.
2. we try my processor in his computer... his doesen't work
3. we assumed at this point it was his motherboard.. we bought a new
one and installed... now we cant even get his computer to engage the
monitor
4. we replacede power supplys, processors, and memory sticks at this
point to try and weed any of that out. no luck.

heres where it gets weird.. we decide to try his components 1 by 1 in
my machine ( Winodws XP Pro 2.8 mhz P4 1 gig ram)

1 we put his video card into my machine... and bam i get the reset on
MY machine just like his was doing.. I say ok ... must be the video
card... put my card back in .. SAME thing !

2. maybe we got the processors mixed up? swapped them out .. same
thing only insted of reset.. i get the BSoD this time.. so we swap the
processors back. And wtih a reboot with all of my original equip it is
now doing the exact same thing his computer was doing.

Dinner..

OK so we decide to try his hard drive with my comp... it boots fine
!!!!!! WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF? ( pulling hair out )

put my Hard Drive back in ... same error...

put his Hard Drive back in ... boots fine..

ok .. his HD is good.. put it into his machine and it resets
again!!!!!

WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?WTF?

please help as i ma totally lost... seem like something is burning up
? we worked on it for well over 12 hours, got no sleep , my girlfriend
dumped me and im living on the streets now.... please help

You appear to love swapping hardware left, right and centre.
Have you considered that WinXP is quite particular when it
comes to hardware, and will in most cases not run on anything
other than the equipment it was installed on?

The vast majority of BSOD problems are caused by software
or driver issues. You will probably find that your system boots
up very nicely if you perform a new installation of WinXP into
a different folder. This will take you less than one hour. You
can then go to a flea market and sell the extra hardware you
bought in vain. Use the profit to buy your girlfriend a bunch of
flowers.

 

[Mike Hall]

As you girlfriend has dumped you, take this chance to find one that has
experience as a computer service engineer.. it will save you untold $$$, and
you may even live happily ever after.. in the meantime, send all of the
dumped computer parts to me.. I will find a use for them..

PS.. did you happen to change the case too.. I don't have any spare ones
laying around..

 

[D.Currie]

This is why I always have work. You had one computer with a simple problem,
and now you have 2 computers with what may be more serious problems.

First thing: it's never a good idea to start testing components that you
might think are bad in a computer that you actually care about and want to
run. And swapping out parts willy-nilly isn't a good idea either. If
something was fried to begin with, you could have damaged the new
components, too.

First, put BOTH computers back to the way they were to begin with. Double
and triple check EVERYTHING before you turn it on. Are all the jumpers
correct? Are all the cards & cables seated properly? Is the right ram in the
right computer? Did you make sure none of the pins on the processor are
bent? If you removed the heat sink from the processor or jarred it loose at
all, did you take off the old thermal component and apply a proper amount of
NEW thermal paste or a new pad? And while you were doing all of this parts
swapping, were you careful not to static shock anything? Something that
might have been fine before you started might well be dead now.

Once you're absolutely sure everything is correct, snug, not bent or
damaged, check again. Have your friend look at it, and make sure everything
is plugged in nice and snug.

Then plug in one of the computers and see what happens. If it doesn't get to
the bios, but it beeps, look up the beep code and see what it means. Fix
that problem before you get any further.

If it doesn't get to the bios and doesn't beep, either you've got a power
problem, something that's not set right, a card that's not seated, something
that's shorted, or bad hardware. You can try resetting the bios using the
jumper on the motherboard. Look in the manual to see how to do that. If that
doesn't work, take the whole thing apart, inspect every piece for burn marks
or other damage. Make sure the standoffs for the motherboard are in the
right place. Put it together using the minimum hardware required
(motherboard, processor, memory, power) and see if you get a beep code error
about the video. (You could also try this step outside the case, just to
verify that there's nothing shorting in the case. Then put the motherboard
in the case and try again.) If you do get the video error beep, plug in the
video card, and see what happens. One at a time, keep adding components back
in and see if any give you an error or it refuses to boot. And I really mean
ONE. One cable, one component, one single thing at a time. I've seen
computers refuse to boot because of a bad IDE cable, whether there was a
drive attached to it or not. If you take it one step at a time, you'll know
what's bad. At this point, you don't care about Windows, and if the hard
drive isn't attached, that obviously isn't even a factor. You're just trying
to verify hardware.

If it gets through the bios and starts loading Windows, but stops with an
error code, look up the error code and fix that problem before going
further. Depending on what you have on that computer, it might be faster
and easier to simply format the hard drive and start over. Or, you can do a
repair install and see if that fixes it. There are other options, depending
on what your goal is and what the error is. When you get that far you might
want to post back.

 

[Guest]

Frankly, it sounds like the video card in his buddy's machine was going bad
and now has done untold damage in BOTH machines.

All I can add to your answer to Snyper7 is: Make darn sure you have an
anti-static wrist strap on while doing all this swapping and testing. I've
seen a lot of machines for repair where the owners didn't think that 'old
wives tale' was valid any more.