System Crashes as Soon as Windows Loads

[Josh821]

Ok, so here's my scenario.. I turn on my computer, it boots up just fine, Windows loads, 5 seconds later, my screen goes blank and the only thing I can do is hit the power switch on my computer and start over again. I managed to not have this problem if I use Windows 98 the first edition, but I do have this problem if I use Win98 SE (which was working fine for a couple years), Win ME, and Win XP. I seriously doubt it's a software issue though because I've formatted my hard drive and started from scratch, even using the recovery disk that came with my computer (which should've worked fine since the only hardware I ever upgraded in my comp was the RAM). So, I'm left with what seems to be a hardware issue. So then I figured the hard drive must be bad, replaced it, same problem. Then I figured maybe it's the video card, tried a different one, same problem. So then I said, well maybe the power supply has died or something, put a brand new higher wattage (300 as opposed to the 250 I had in it) PS in, and the same problem. The only thing I can think of now is that maybe the motherboard/CPU has gone or maybe it's a cooling issue (which would be weird since the computer was fine for a couple years with the same setup). If anyone has a clue as to what this problem may be, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[snlburns]

I think you hit the nail on the head with the processor theory. Make sure you have removed (with a small vacum or compressor) all the dust from the board. If you have a fan on your heatsink, make sure it is running. Last, make sure the heat sink and processor are firmly secured to each other and the board. There are many itmes that can over heat and cause this issue, but the processor is number one.

 

[mjinks61]

Another possibility believe it or not, is a bad CDROM or dirty disk in the unit. I have had very similar issues on a machine at home. Once it was a bad drive, but more times than not, it was from a CD that one of my kids had put in the drive, and had bad smudges on the data side of the disk. Good luck, and Happy Computing