Frustration Overwhelming -- Stubburn XP

[Migganis]

Ahh, after three hours of troubleshooting I hang my head in defeat and cry to you fine computer citizens. Well, I built a computer for a neighbor, installed a pirated version of windows XP, and everything was great. He went to install the SP1 and realized that microsoft wouldn't allow him to update with a pirated version. After that, all hell broke loose. His computer would only boot up one in every six times, the other 5 times it would just freeze up on the "welcome" screen or the black screen immediately before it. So I told him to go buy a legitamate copy of windows XP home. I came over, reinstalled Windows with the legitimate key, reinstalled all his software, and updated the BIOS (I thought this was the problem initially). Everything seemed to be working fine. Then we turned the computer off, confident that it had been repaired and bam, it hangs again. It wont get past the "welcome" screen. No HD activity, just frozen. I ran MEMTEST86 and the RAM seems Ok, I also ran a superficial test on the harddrive (not a complete sector scan) and everything was clean.

What could possibly be wrong? Suggestions... PLEASE!
Thanks in Advance.

 

[amdskip]

hmmm, what are the system specs?

 

[Migganis]

Motherboard is an Abit KG7-RAID. 256 MB DDR Crucial RAM. AOpen GeForce4 Video, Soundblaster sound, Athlon XP 2000+, 80GB Seagate HD, DVD-ROM, CD-RW...

 

[kursplat]

So I told him to go buy a legitamate copy of windows XP home. I came over, reinstalled Windows with the legitimate key,

you did format first ? you did use the NEW disk ? try to format the partion then reinstall.
thats the only hope of getting rid of the bad karma from the first install
good luck

 

[HandyDandyRandy]

Originally posted by: kursplat

So I told him to go buy a legitamate copy of windows XP home. I came over, reinstalled Windows with the legitimate key,

you did format first ? you did use the NEW disk ? try to format the partion then reinstall.
thats the only hope of getting rid of the bad karma from the first install
good luck

i recommend you use fdisk and delete the partion then recreate the partion and install as kursplat says


maybe try using the partitioning software that came with your hd after fdisking it

 

[gsaldivar]

If possible, try to make sure that the HD is on it's own bus.

I had flaky CDROM drive once that caused symptoms very similar to the ones you are describing. Reinstalling the OS wouldn't fix the problem, but after I took the CDROM drive and isolated it on its own bus, everything worked perfectly.

Good luck!

 

[kursplat]

HandyDandyRandy

i recommend you use fdisk and delete the partion then recreate the partion and install

more better
good luck