Windows wont boot half of time

[Oribis]

Ok i just built my friend his computer and we live in different areas of states where we go to college. Anyways hes complaining that half the time the computer will go to a black screen after bios before winxp booting starts. Half of the time it just sits here and does nothing, other half of time it will boot to windows and when the winxp loadup screen comes on its all faded...its annoying cause it takes a bunch of reboots before he can get into windows. Any ideas why?

 

[mikecel79]

When he gets the black screen does it have a cursor in the upper left corner blinking? or is it always just black

 

[Navid]

I would run memtest to make sure that the memory is stable. He may have to increase the RAM voltage a notch if he gets errors. If the memory is stable, it should run with no erors overnight.
http://www.memtest86.com/

 

[Oribis]

but if computer makes it through bios everytime and really only has a problem with the windows....wouldn't it probably be a windows problem or no?

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: Oribis
but if computer makes it through bios everytime and really only has a problem with the windows....wouldn't it probably be a windows problem or no?

There is no guarantee.
You can only be sure if you confirm that you have a stable system (hardware).
A stable computer can operate even when it runs a program that puts a lot of load (stress) on the CPU or the memory or both.
When you boot, the CPU and the RAM are both cold and can run better than when they are hot.
Since the crash happens at different times, based on your description, it suggests that there may be a hardware problem.

Use memtest to confirm that the RAM is stable. Then, after you confirm that it is, run prime95 to confirm that the CPU is stable. You have nothing to lose by running these.