error loading operationg system problem

error loading operating system problem

Hi all. After my computer getting slower and slower and decided to re install windows. xp pro on a 40gig wd by the way. i did so about a week ago. But today all of a sudden my screen went off, came back on again distorted, then came back on fine. After this my whole system was laggingthe mouse draggin across the screen e.t.c. i rrebooted but it was the same each time.
So i decided to reinstall windows, i began the installastion everything going okay,formatted the drive okay, finished the first part of installation and the computer rebooted. But after coming back on when it noramlly boots form the harddrive for the firt time it didnt. i got this
error loading operating system
and thats it so i tried installing on another harddrive and got the same thing happening.
any ideas? i also tried installing with my friends xp home boot disk but i got the saem thing

I would check the usual culprits for system instability.

1) Is the PC overheating? Check temps if possible.
2) How are the PSU rails? Check rails if you can (preferably with a multimeter).
3) Check the RAM with memtest86 from www.memtest86.com

1) not overheating, i have a tronado and an slk 900a tamps are about 24
2) checked and things were fine
3) ran the test had no problems, runnging twinmos dual channel 512 by the way

Are you able to run any drive diagnostic tools on the drive? Perhaps it is damaged?

Yeh i have run it on one drive, but i have tried 3 different hard drives. 2 40gb and a maxtor 80gb. i get the saem on them. I have tried everything, ressetting cmos and the likes

Sounds weird - what about trying different IDE cables? Make sure all cables are secure?