So, I'm in big sh*t. A week ago, my pc crashed and since then it hasn't worked anymore. This is how it went: The Crash: I got back from vacation and I started my pc. After 5 mins of browsing the internet checking e-mails and listening to some music, the pc crashed. All I saw was a flash of a blue screen with white letters on it (not the usual windows blue screen, but just plain text). I tried like 3 times to reboot the system without any luck. One time the screen froze at the Windows XP Welcome Screen, before getting the same crash. Another time it froze at the Windows XP Loading Screen. And yet another time it crashed before loading Windows XP. My Computer: The system is -or at least it was- running MS Windows XP SP1. I've got a Intel Pentium 4 (2.0 GHz) and an Asus motherboard to go with it. I've got 2 IDE Maxtor Harddrives: One (200Gigs) has 4 partitions (C: for windows, the other 3 for software), the other (80Gigs) has only 1 partition. My VGA Video Card is an old GeForce 4 MX460. I've got a networkcard, a Soundblaster Audiocard, and 512mb of RAM. Formatting: The day after the crash and my attempts to reboot, I thought I might as well go on and format my C: drive and reïnstall Windows XP. Since then, I've tried to reïnstall Windows XP for more than 15 times. Some times, it fails to load the Windows Setup on boot, saying the hard drive contains corrupt .dll files, other times the formatting works fine, but the problems begin with copying setup files: multiple files were not properly copied from the CD or couldn't be found on the CD. Sometimes all the files get copied correctly, but while installing Windows, the setup freezes and reboots (with the same blue screen as before). One time everything went well and Windows started up fine, crashing 2 mins later, with again the same blue-screen-flash. The real problem ??: This is the first time I'm not able to correct my computer problem just by formatting and reinstallation. So what is causing these crashes? Temperature: Before having this fatal crash, I noticed my pc was having a bit of temperature problems. Rendering videos caused my Motherboard temperature to raise till 70°C, which made my PC crash. After some of the crashes I'm having now, I looked at the temperature in BIOS and one time it was 71°C (CPU) after a short reboot. Searching for a solution to these high temperature, I cleaned the slots of my CPU Fan and my Video Card Fan. I also installed another fan, just pointing (at 45 degrees) to my motherboard/CPU. I haven't recorded temperature higher than 64°C since, which has to be a good thing. All of this said, I'm still unable to install Windows XP and still having crashes. Software: Because the setup said there could be anything wrong with the CD, I tried to install Windows from another CD, with the same results. There is nothing wrong with the CD's because they were recently used on other PC's, where they worked perfectly. Because I was unable to install the OS, I tried to run an OS from the CD: Linux Knoppix. Guess what: It failed to load, just freezing on loading a file, or auto-configuring devices. I removed all the devices I didn't need like my audio card, my network card, and I disconnected my second harddrive. Still nothing. Then I reconnected my second harddrive, and disconnected my first. After 2 attempts to load Knoppix, it worked (for about 10 minutes, then it froze)! OK, so I explained the situation I'm in. The thing that I'm trying to find out is: What is wrong/broken? I'm beginning to realise that it might be necassary to replace a device, and buy a new one, but which? If you have any idea what problem may be causing this, please reply. I am willing to experiment on ideas, if you have any. Thanks in advance! Update: I read somewhere that a solution to not being able to correctly install Windows XP was to do a full clean format in FAT32. I think they mean booting your system in MS-DOS and using software like partition magic to format your c: drive. I created a Windows 98 Boot floppy disk to use for booting MS-DOS. It worked the first time, getting a command prompt, but loading Partition Magic didn't, it froze. I tried to do it over but now everything just freezes while loading Windows 98 Command Prompt. Strange. Another suggestion was about the RAM: Take one of the two RAM-sticks out and check which is bad. Well, I took one out and decided to start the computer up booting MemTest86+ V1.65. I ran the test and it ended up finding no errors. Trying to floppy-boot Windows 98 still fails. Now, I rebooted the system and tried to install Windows XP Pro again. Loading Setup worked, copying files worked and installing worked. So Windows XP is working well for the moment, well, that is untill I needed to reboot because I'd just installed my GeForce MX460 drivers. Where you'd normally see the Windows logo with a sliding bar, there came nothing... just a black screen. I've decided to let it cool off a bit, but I'm still getting the black screen I'll try it over with the other RAM stick now.

You're attempting to fix a hardware problem by changing the software!!! Your CPU is overheating. Remove the HSF & clean it thoroughly & remove all traces of the thermal material. Remove the CPU & clean at traces of thermal material from the top. Then apply a fresh thin layer of paste to the top of the CPU & carefully place the CPU in the socket, being careful not to 'smudge' the paste. Then place a small dab on the bottom of the heatsink & rub it in using your finger inserted in the corner of a baggie...then wipe the paste off the heatsink using a lint-free cloth or paper towel. Reinstall the HSF & check your temps. As for what happened to WinXP...you probably have a real mess on your hands & will be forced to format & do a clean install. It never should have been tampered with. Follow these instructions: http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm

Yes, fix your temperature problem. Besides the above suggestions, take a close look at the power supply. Make sure the fan is spinning fast and the input vents aren't blocked with dust. Do yourself a favor BACKUP!

And download and run from a floppy,a memory testing utility like memtest86.

on reading your first long message, before i got to the bit where you mentioned ram i had already formed the opinion that in my experience it sounded like a ram problem. Might turn out not to be, but that's what I reckoned was most likely