This sounds very much like a defective video card.  I'd recommend
swapping in a known-good video card and seeing if the problem is still
there.  If that doesn't solve the problem, I'd try disconnecting the
cd-rom drive and, lastly, swap memory with some known good.
I'd put more money on the video card though :)

Tony Mayer
Sysop
The Magic FunHouse BBS
http://bbs.magicom.net


Rob Cilia wrote:
> Good Day Everyone, a friend of mine is having problems with a pc he bought @
> 2 years ago.  Unlucky for him the warranty has since expired (funny how
> these things happen at the most undesirable times!).  It's an IBM Netvista
> A21i desktop pc. The pc's specs: 1.1 ghz Celeron, 128mb ram, 60gb drive, cd
> drive,etc. It's not a monster performance pc but it's not a slouch either.
> It was running WinXP Home edition.  Apparently the pc experienced some
> severe power surges which caused it to stop functioning properly.  It went
> from operating for a couple of hours to not operating at all.  I can get it
> a dos screen to perform some hardware diagnostics using the pc-doctor 2.0
> software boot disk that ibm provided with the system but it doesn't report
> any hardware errors.  At first I thought it was a hard drive problem so I
> reformatted the drive and reinstalled Win XP Home on it but the same problem
> still exists, it freezes just as the Win XP screen loads up.  I have
> reformatted and attempted to reinstall Win2k Pro but the same thing happens,
> while at the command prompt/dos mode, the system runs fine, allows you to
> format the hd, perform diagnostics, install the os and runs for hours
> without fail, etc.  However when you try to start an OS as soon as it hits a
> screen with graphics, ie. The Win2k or WinXP startup screen with the
> scrolling indicator bar at the bottom, it either freezes entirely or causes
> the pc to spontaneously reboot.  I have scanned the harddrive with a
> Logicube Solitaire Turbo 2000 cloning device I use at work which allows you
> to clone drives and scan & repair drives but nothing showed up.  I also
> swapped drives from another pc that I know is working and the same problem
> exists, the pc locks up during the bootup process at the same point each
> time even with a new drive so I don't think it's a hd problem.  I don't have
> any equipment for testing power supplies or motherboards for component
> failure but I'm thinking it's one or both of these areas that may be the
> source of the problem.  Have any of you ever seen a similar problem and if
> so what did you find to be the cause of the problem?  If you have any
> comments or any suggestions, please reply back on this list.  TIA... rob,wpg
>
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