boot disk failure and other problems........

[salraf]

Here are my specs and the story will follow and thanks for helping..

Abit Fatal1ty AN8 m/b (old I know-socket 939)
AMD x2 4200+, 2gb patriot RAM
winxp pro, ati 3850

Bios is the latest available.

Problem started a few days ago when the computer started freezing. I was in the process of downloading a program but even if it downloaded, it was never installed.

Wife was the one who noted the problems while I was at work.

Anyways, when I returned home the following has happened.

Windows was not working and the computer froze therefore I restarted it. Upon restarting, I got the message 'boot disk failure, insert cd.'

I flashed the m/b bios, removed the battery, even pulled out the 4 sticks of RAM and reseated them.
Upon restarting, I received a "CMOS checksum error." I went into the bios and noted that the current date and time was incorrect and corrected that.

Now upon restarting, no checksum error, no boot disk failure message. Windows screen loads but never completely. There seems to be the BSOD that flashes a message very quickly that I can never read and then the computer restarts. In the next cycle, I get the message to now try and load in safe mode, but even with this I can never get to a working screen and it reboots until the safe mode screen each time.

So what is the damn problem? M/B, HDD, new m/b battery? Can I adjust some settings in bios?

If it is a HDD failure, can I retreive the info for another HDD?

I am pretty saavy about computers but out of my league with this one....


Thanks t1cable:

 

[Denithor]

First thing I'd check is RAM. Pull all but one stick and see if you can get into Windows.

If you cannot get into Windows try another stick or try another socket. Also run memtest86 on the sticks, one at a time so you can determine if one is bad.