Big problem, cant boot

[superman22x]

Not for my computer, but a friends. He starts it up, and with in seconds it shuts down again. For a while, he could run it for a short time, than it would shutdown again. At first he thought it may have been overheation, but now with just seconds and its off, it's something different. He also tried booting in safe mode, and a bunch of errors about system 32 popped up. Than it shutdown soon after.
Any ideas what might be wrong?

 

[CompMan]

Could maybe be the processor

 

[dudemcbob]

Something might be missing in the windows startup that is required to start up, just like my packered bell(Old computer) I lost some windows startup and i cant start.

 

[Celegorm]

If he is getting a bunch of system32 errors, odds are it's an extremely currupt windows install, or a virus.

If you can, take his hard drive out, and plug it into another comptuer and run it through some anti-malware scans.

 

[Comp_Pro]

try to get new hardware (harddrive,processor,ram,GPU and possibly a new power box supply?

 

[blackjack]

Try putting the windows CD in and see if you can run a windows repair of the CD

 

[Cabbs]

Do the simplest stuff first. Don't buy new parts until you know you need them, unless you have the parts or can get them for free/cheap. I would try Celegorm's and blackjack's ideas first.

 

[superman22x]

Well, he cant even see the dell boot screen. But I am going over there today, so will see exactly what is happening.

 

[J03]

I had this before. It would Load up, then the THEMES service would stop (or somthing like that), and the computer would go CLUNK and turn off. I had to Re-Install windows :'(

 

[superman22x]

Well, he made it sound like he couldnt even get far enough to reinstall windows. One more question, if I were to backup some of his files from his HD onto mine incase we have to reinstall, will it be risking my computer?
It might be that the processor burnt out, cause he said the computer was really hot after crashing. So maybe teh processor went out and thats why it turns off after seconds.