PC Troubleshooting :(

[jd254]

P4 2.8c ghz
some old mobo
some REALLY old vid card that I'm sure a 950GMA will outperform.
some generic case PSU

problem: will not boot into OS or anything really. it loads what ever half way and freezes, except windows 98se let me try to be clearer. original windows xp install loads half way, and then freezes. windows xp CD loading installation files or whatever half way and freezes. Linux live boot or installation loads half way and then freezes. windows 98 se ran perfectly. so watcha think? gunna try vista next but i dont want vista with these 9 year old hardware.

Compaq PC
sempron 3400+
nice buffalo ram

problem: I press the power button, it turns on, black screen... I turn off, turn back on, same thing. repeat about 7 times. I remove all RAM, turn on and get the beeps, yay. put one back in, it turns on but get black screen when windows loads. put other ram back in, same thing. Ran MemTEST a few times. ram in perfect working order. went to bed. woke up, reseat the CPU and put some artic silver on. back to square one. black screen on and on. no visual of any kind now. I'm willing to say go to hell Comcrap here and just advise friend on a nice e2200 OC setup. microcenter got them for $50. $55 Gigabyte mobo recommended by good ol Anandtech guide and we're set for some OC'ing.

any advice on what to do with either of these?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

First problem with P4 comp; stick with win98 se. Problem solved.
Second problem with Compaq PC; sounds like a problem with your graphics card.

 

[jd254]

windows 98? lol no! I only had a copy of that because I wanted to play final fantasy vii on PC because I thought it had better compatibility than XP. I don't even know how to use windows 98. lol I really would like some suggestions on possible culprits here. This WAS my first baby before I sold it to a friend. use to have a kick ass 9800 pro in there! He's not replacing anything, so... it's either do or die, or windows 98

intergrated gfx for the second PC. so.. mobo? i hate upgrading mobos, it's like a new PC upgrade every single time.

EDIT:i cant even play left 4 dead on windows 98! there's a 6600gt waiting to be bought if I can get this up and running. Hm... wonder how the bare minimum specification will perform.

System Requirements

Minimum:
o Supported OS: Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / Vista64 (problem)
o Processor: Pentium 4 3.0GHz (2.8 is hte same as 3)
o Memory: 1 GB (check)
o Graphics: 128 MB, Shader model 2.0, ATI 9600, NVidia 6600 or better (go 6600gt)
o Hard Drive: At least 7.5 GB of free space (check)
o Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card (i guess check)