Windows XP Freezes at loading screen

[Maximilian]

Windows will somtimes freeze up at the loading screen with the moving bar, itll simply stop moving and stay there. No idea why, no idea how to solve this, its only somtimes it does it as well apparently. Its my comp but its on loan to my parents until i finish building them their socket A comp.

Specs:
Pentium II 400 mhz
1x256mb pc100
1x128mb pc133
1x32mb pc100
S3 salvage? savage? pci graphics card 16mb
Ali usb card
not sure on the mobo

What could be causing this? Drivers? Simple cuz its old garbage? Its strange how after a few resets it might work....

 

[Maximilian]

bump

 

[wpshooter]

Hardware to old.

If it's a PII, then it is about time to send to the old computer graveyard in the sky !!!

 

[Slowlearner]

Mismatched memory

 

[Maximilian]

Its still useful, im not chucking it out.

Do you mean different memory speeds? The pc133 stick is causing this? Why though, as it only happens randomly, and it must downclock it to pc100 speeds.

 

[Maximilian]

bump

 

[Maximilian]

bump, any more possible causes?

 

[Smilin]

A computer that is cranky to boot (works sometimes, doesn't others) is often indicative of a failing power supply, especially if the computer remains relatively stable once booted.

A software failure tends to predictably fail in the same place every time.
Memory or CPU errors tend to manifest as random blue screens/crashes/reboots.
Power is the only thing that shows up most often at boot.

 

[Maximilian]

Hmm, thanks for that 😀 . The power supply is unchangeable so i guess my parents will just have to live with it until they get a new one.