I have a problem similar to the "friend" Justin on a post made on 7-30-04. My computer started acting up one day after I download a developmental tool from Volition to work on a game mod. The first thing that happened was the game in question would not run without getting the Error report question crash. So I uninstalled it and reinstalled it, loosing everything I had made of course. Then I noticed other programs to randomliy crash with the error report message. I ran Mcaffee, Nortons, and other virus removal tools none of which detected a virus. I figured the program had messed up my .dll files and decided to reformat. So I did. During the reformat I kept getting .dll files that were not copied correctly during setup and I kept hitting enter and they were finally copied. While re-installing stuff my IE, Mcaffee, and other things crashed a few times to the error screen. I got the system running and played the one game I had installed and it crashed 4 times in 1 1/2 hours. So I reformatted again. Still same problems, to include the computer just plain cutting off a few times. Not a shut down just off. After I got it installed that time I tried to install service pack 2 and on reboot the windows gave the black screen of death saying some .dll was not presant and could not start windows. I started all over and asked some others for help too. Same problems. This is what I have tried so far: Reformat ( many times ) used Kill mbr to kill MBR then reformated. I have 2 hard drives and have tried both as the master deleted partitions on both and mbr's on both. I have used 2 different XP Pro installation CD's. One was the original that I formated the computer with when I built it and the other was from a computer IT guy here that works for a University that buys X many licenses for XP Pro. (So it was good too) My original works because I used it to reformat a laptop and had no problems. I am pretty sure that the hard drives are not the problem since both hards made any difference on result. I formated using the XP disc and booted straight to the disc deleting partitions and making new ones. I have not re-installed anything but virus scan and windows the last couple times I have tried to reformat and I am still getting error screen crashes and power turn offs. I did not use Fdisk because I frankly have never used it and am not familiar with how to. When I killed the MBR I killed it from a floppy in dos. I am going insane. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am thinking of trying a brand new HD and even thinking of purchasing a new Motherboard. I don't know what else to trace down. I have an Iwill mobo and Seagate HD's Thanks in advance for any assistance. And to any virus writters who may be reading, you should all have your hands cut off and put in a jar on your wall if all you have to do with your spare time is mess up innocent folks stuff. You might as well go over to Iraq and behead innocent people like the rest of the lowly terrorists.

Any ideas guys......????? I am stumped.

Pull the whole thing apart, and remove the battery to the Bios for fifteen minutes. then put your PC back together with only your HDD, 1 stick of ram, MB and processor connected. if the thing boots OK and you are stable for a while start adding the remainder of the hardware until you strike a problem, this way you'll be able to ID the dodgy hardware (if that is what's causing your problem) I sounds to me like your RAM is a little dodgy and on the way out. alternativly there may be a problem with your Bios. make sure you have the most recent version

It detects the ram fine on boot up. And it detects it fine when running. I even have the same manufacturer for all my ram, but at this point I am willing to try about anything.

try another cdrom to up-load your software, since some files or dll's are not present and thus not copied at all.