Troublesome XP...!! HELP !!

[justme101]

My friend has a computer which is aroun 7 years old. From the past two years it's gone berserk and keeps giving him trouble on a regular basis.

It's mostly the OS. It has been formatted and reinstalled numerous times but it keeps coming back with different problems. sometimes it keeps rebooting, or it hangs too much, or the boot.ini file is missing. This time it came up with the "NTLDR missing. Press ctrl+alt+del to restart" message. I installed windows 7 which worked fine but was lagging due to limited hardware. It had XP SP2 then XP SP3..but the problem seemed to be on all of them.

So...my question is could it be the hard disk or any other hardware which might be causing the problems. should i change the hard disk ???

[dreatica]

I would suggest to change the XP disc from where you are installing, might cd be corrupted.

Next step would be Scan HDD, and do basic stuff like clean the CPU, fan etc.

Try to attach another HDD/ram to test which one causing a prob.

[justme101]

@dreatica

I'll do the cleaning and scanning part..but you see the problem doesn't show up immediately it has taken months to appear so i might as well buy another HDD. but the last problem i.e. the NTLDR missing message occured only 5 days after it was reinstalled by a professional with his own disc. So i dont think it is a problem with the discs.

[dreatica]

Originally Posted by justme101

@dreatica

I'll do the cleaning and scanning part..but you see the problem doesn't show up immediately it has taken months to appear so i might as well buy another HDD. but the last problem i.e. the NTLDR missing message occured only 5 days after it was reinstalled by a professional with his own disc. So i dont think it is a problem with the discs.

XP is known to slow down and cause problems after long time use, dont install plenty of apps etc.

For the NTLDR issue, could be a problem coz of pirated XP. Try running another copy. Give it another try before buying HDD coz its not worth to invest before knowing the cause.

[justme101]

Yes that's what i thought...i'll try with another copy and let you know...

[Kola2842]

Here this might help:
NTLDR is missing

[justme101]

OK now i think the PC should RIP...

I start it normally and it gives me the NTLDR missing message. Now i restart with a fresh CD of XP SP3 which i borrowed from a friend and he said it was working fine (he used it two days ago). And here's what happened:

1. press any key to boot from CD (so i did)

2. It said "setup is inspecting your hardware configuration..." (now this message stays for 3 seconds and then the screen is blank,the light on the dvd drive is not blinking nor the hard disk is processing anything,the only light on is the power light on the CPU. Iwaited for 15 minutes with the same situation)

so what to do now..????

[Kola2842]

^^check with another ram stick......

And if runs then delete and recreate partition on which you installed windows . Then install windows..

Check you boot configuration , if everything right....

If still not worked , then check your hdd . Attach it to different system and format each drive manually then try booting again again.

[justme101]

I dont think i'll find one...it's DDR2 667 MHz...i found a 2GB 800 MHz for me for 1500 Rs.

Hey!! i just remembered i saw in the board specs that it supports a max of 2 GB and the max frequency specified was 667 MHz but the board has a single 2GB stick running at 800 MHz...could that be a problem..????

[dreatica]

Originally Posted by justme101

I dont think i'll find one...it's DDR2 667 MHz...i found a 2GB 800 MHz for me for 1500 Rs.

Hey!! i just remembered i saw in the board specs that it supports a max of 2 GB and the max frequency specified was 667 MHz but the board has a single 2GB stick running at 800 MHz...could that be a problem..????

Offcourse that could be a problem. Will you mind sharing your board model # so that we can further help you out.

[justme101]

yup it's Intel D945GCNL...and it's my friend's PC.

[Kola2842]

Hey ! I want to remind something if you r missing.

When you install window 7 . It sets hdd to AHCI mode in bios...

Then again if you try install xp , it'll give BSOD , as xp doesn't support ahci.

So i wanna ask that when installing xp , did you set hdd mode to ide/compatible mode??

[dreatica]

Originally Posted by justme101

yup it's Intel D945GCNL...and it's my friend's PC.

The board is ok as 800 MHz memory would work at 667 MHz.

Edited: same is mentioned here too :http://communities.intel.com/message/122631

[justme101]

Originally Posted by Kola2842

Hey ! I want to remind something if you r missing.

When you install window 7 . It sets hdd to AHCI mode in bios...

Then again if you try install xp , it'll give BSOD , as xp doesn't support ahci.

So i wanna ask that when installing xp , did you set hdd mode to ide/compatible mode??

well i suppose i did...because i installed windows 7 months ago..after that windows xp was installed and it worked good for a couple of months but it eventually gives up. I couldn't find the AHCI settings can you guide me?? and i checked the BIOS i saw that ATA/IDE mode was set to Native i changed it to legacy without any effect.


update:
well didn't need to go through anything else, my friend took it over to a shop and they ran some Disaster Recovery Program and fixed it really cheap. And he also told me that if this thing goes bad agin he's getting a new rig. (phew..finally.. )