My first thought is an overheating problem. During the power supply
replacement some component(s) may have become disconnected or dislodged. I
would double check the following:

Firm connection of heat sink and fan to CPU.
All fans are connected to power sources including CPU fan, video card fan
(if any), and any case fans.
Power supply fan(s) working when computer is first turned on.
Excessive dust, particularly around fans and the CPU heat sink.

While inside case, check all data and power connectors to make sure they are
firmly connected and check the RAM to make sure it is firmly seated.

If the foregoing does not solve the problem, set the BIOS to "default"
settings. Once the computer is operational, the BIOS settings can be reset
as desired.

If still not completing the boot process, there is likely an operating
system error. Try booting to "safe mode" and do diagnostics/repairs from
there. If it will not boot to safe mode, your friend will likely have to get
an OS installation disk and use it to repair the OS if possible.

Hope this helps.

Tom Mayer

----- Original Message -----
From: "Venkat Viswanathan" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2005 4:13 AM
Subject: [PCBUILD] Win xp woes


A friend's pc with win xp (pro) had random freezing problems and trouble
shooting showed  a power supply failure. replaced with a new power supply
and now win will not load.

(1) at the first attempt it loaded upto the win xplogo and froze halfway
through

(2) gave up after 5/6 attempts and let the system cool down.

(3)after a couple of hours tried again and got a window with options
normal/last known config/with cmd prompt/safe mode etc.

(4)chose normal first--- did not work. neither did the other options. just
froze every time.

(5)again cooling down and re-try. this time got a msg C:\WIN 32\CONFIG.SYS
file missing or corrupted and to insert original setup cd and choose "r"
option.

(6) problem was the owner did not have the original set up cd.

this is where it stands at the moment. my question is::--

(1) is it possible to boot from a diskette (and if so will I need all the 6
diskettes for win xp?) "the free pc tech support-boot disk downloads" says a
single "boot disk essential" will do and from this directory I386/ run
winnt.exe"

tried this after setting the bios to boot from floppy but it will not read
the floppy.

(2) if I slave the win xp-- hdd to my system with win 98 se is it possible
to repair the config.sys file.

(3) as of this time I have slaved it and do find a "repair" folder(in
windows) but it does not contain any config. sys file.

two more points (1) the friends system does not have  CDROM drive but a
CD-RW.

so even if the original win xp pro set up cd is available i do not think it
will read off the cd-rw. if  I install a cdrom drive it shows as (gibberish)
in the bios IDE details and possibly will run into "new hardware" problem

(2) am able to get into bios every time-- possibly one good sign

come to think of it I am happy with 98se!

any input will be of immense help and will be gratefully appreciated.

good day--- Venkat

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