random powerdowns

[Shadowmoose]

Just throwing this out there, go to your control panel, click system, go over to the advanced tab, then click on settings under Start up and Recovery, and uncheck the automatically restart option under the system failure catagory. If your computer is giving and error and restarting before you can see it this might show it.

However it sounds to me like some corrupt hardware of sorts if it isn't an overheating problem.

On another note could it be possible the XP cd you're trying to install with was scratched or corrupted in some way? You could always try running off a live linux CD and see if you still get a random shut down. Then of course you should check your cable connections that they are all secure.

 

[playedspades]

shadwo, i tend to agree with your opinion on the corrupt hardware, so it's good to have the second concurring opinion. however, i would like to make sure exactly what hardware is corrupt before we continue.

on that note, let's move on to the next update. so i've got my computer back up and running, at least well enough to boot windows and post this blog (hopefully you all can sense the slight more cheerful mood.) at the same time, i've still got plenty of problems, to include two errors during bios check: slave drive error and cpu fan error (son of a...!!) as well as some fairly poor system performace (which just really sucks on 6 month old $1200 machine.)

but let's take this one problem at a time, starting with the slave drive (just cause it seems like that'll be the easiest to fix.) so here's the deal, i get the "slave drive error, press F1 to continue" message during bios, but the drive *does* appear in my device manager. i can view the properties and even update the driver via device manager, but i can't access the drive either thru my computer or command prompt. if anyone has a clue, i'd love to hear it.

while we're all considering that puzzle, i'm taking preliminary steps to try to apply some diagnostics to the other problems. a friend refered me to http://www.sisoftware.net/ for a few tools to do just that. i've not checked it out yet, so opinions are sought.

aparently the guys at sisofware.net think their program is such hot stuff that they want you to pay for it. well....i'm broke and cheap, so nuts to that. =P need to find a free version.

 

[flameethrower]

you need to basically start form scratch. go bare bones. re build the computer again. i had to do this once for a customer. it can be as faulty as a bad connection in a sata wire. so try and begin as if it was new. if you follow this be sure to have thermal paste and dont reuse whats already there. clean it off and start from scratch. and let us know how everything works.

for the harddrives if you can format them form another computer. then reinstall windows onto them once you put back into you case. trial and error. been there done that and i swear i was bald for a week.