xp pro setup hangs

[notion]

Any pointers much appreciated...

P4 3 GHZ 1GB RAM 160GB hd - brand new computer

I installed Win XP sp1 (onto a 15Gb partition), then ran live update. It
all seemed fine. I then installed sp2 and things started going wrong..

When it boots, only displays taskbar and c50x50px square of desktop (in the
centre of the screen), the screen is otherwise black. It is only set at
1024x768 on a 17"tft. Also only displays 768Mb in POST screen, then 736Mb
in dxdiag (because of shared on board graphics, though this is still quite
low?)). However, Crucial test says only 512Mb (I accept this might be
Crucial's tool).

It is suffering from random crashes (after only a few minutes) and display
freezing (looking like a black TV screen with thin jagged lines running
across whole screen). Not tried running anything at all really (no other
software installed yet), however, freezes when trying to start dxdiag and
when trying to uninstall sp2 (which I tried to do after failing to reinstal
WinXP - see below).

Tried reinstalling WinXP, it got as far as copying setup files, then 'press
enter to install windows' and freezes (blue screen with narrow grey message
display band showing at the bottom - no text at all).

Now, I can't run fdisk to reformat the partition as there is no floppy (and
to install one would break terms of the warranty).

I haven't done anything stupid like playing with the BIOS.

Before I send the machine back, does this sound like hardware (e.g. memory)
or software (in which case is there anything I might try doing?)

TIA
Ivor

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Any pointers much appreciated...

P4 3 GHZ 1GB RAM 160GB hd - brand new computer

I installed Win XP sp1 (onto a 15Gb partition), then ran live
update. It all seemed fine. I then installed sp2 and things
started going wrong..

When it boots, only displays taskbar and c50x50px square of desktop
(in the centre of the screen), the screen is otherwise black. It is
only set at 1024x768 on a 17"tft. Also only displays 768Mb in POST
screen, then 736Mb in dxdiag (because of shared on board graphics,
though this is still quite low?)). However, Crucial test says only
512Mb (I accept this might be Crucial's tool).

It is suffering from random crashes (after only a few minutes) and
display freezing (looking like a black TV screen with thin jagged
lines running across whole screen). Not tried running anything at
all really (no other software installed yet), however, freezes when
trying to start dxdiag and when trying to uninstall sp2 (which I
tried to do after failing to reinstal WinXP - see below).

Tried reinstalling WinXP, it got as far as copying setup files,
then 'press enter to install windows' and freezes (blue screen with
narrow grey message display band showing at the bottom - no text at
all).

Now, I can't run fdisk to reformat the partition as there is no
floppy (and to install one would break terms of the warranty).

I haven't done anything stupid like playing with the BIOS.

Before I send the machine back, does this sound like hardware (e.g.
memory) or software (in which case is there anything I might try
doing?)

Driver updates.
Go to the manufacturers web pages.