Help, my computer died and i'm not sure why

As the topic says, my computer pretty much died.

well that is, it will boot up, and start loading windows. then it gives me a blue screen saying something, which i can't read, because they have it only stay up, for a second, then the computer restarts.

i cleared my cmos, and set all my defults back to normal ( no oc'ing ) well...it didn't do a single thing.

i havn't really made much of a change. my FSB has stayed at 250 for the longest time. i ran the computer at 2.5Ghz for a while now, without a single problem. the only thing i ever did was slowly drop the voltage to the CPU, to try to get better temps.

The computer was working just fine last night. was playing games, running boinc without a single problem.

do you think my OC could have corrupt windows? I just need some idea's here. I hope i didn't fry my ram, because i had it at 250fsb, and 3.3 volts. but i had a fan blowing on it the entire time, and the ram never even got warm. but god help everyone who is around me if i fried my ram....150 bucks for that one 512mb stick....i won't be happy.

i'm about to run Memtest and see what that says. ( had to get on my dads computer and download the iso of the file, and burn it to a disc, cause his floppy drive died on him a long time ago, and he has never had the need to get another one, cause he hasn't needed it )

sooo, i'll be back in a few with my memtest update.

anyone have any idea's other than ram though??

oh, and i already tried booting into safe mode. it didn't work. it was asking me to pres the esc. key to skip loading of some file. first time i tried safe mode, i didn't press anything, and then the computer rebooted on me.

so i tried a second time, and this time i hit the esc. key. it tried to skip the file, and yet again it rebooted on me.

ummmmmmm....not to play Mr. Obvious or anything, but how about upping the voltage a bit again?

ok, i don't think its my ram. i couldn't get the blasted iso to boot off the cd to work, and no one in this house other than me has a friggin working floppy drive....

so i tried another stick of ram that i know is good. and it still crashed on me.

sooo, i'm not sure.

i don't think i fried my cpu...because the computer is turning on. that and last night i had some pretty good temps. ( 39-44c on full load, depending on time of day, and temp of my room )

so i'm thinking it MIGHT be windows. that some file got screwed up. i just want to make sure, before i go and re-instlal windows.....cause god i hate doing that, setting up all my files all over again....such a pain!

ACTUALLY, i'll put my HDD into the girls computer, and have it try to boot it. if i still get the error, i will know its windows. if not...well...i'm screwed.

be back with another update on how this goes.

i tried that. i dropped my oc down quite a bit ( down to like 225x10 ) and raised the voltage to 1.8v in the bios.

on my computer i KNOW those settings worked. i even reset the bios, and have everything at defult again. and i'm still getting nothing.

i'll do a few tests real quick, and see what i come up with.

ok, i think windows got corrupt. i put the hdd in the girls computer, and had it try to boot into windows...no go. starts shows the windows splash screen, then shows that error really quick, then BAM, restart.

bah, looks like i will have ot re-install windows....god i hate doing that. and i'm going to lose so much stuff!

have to re-install firefox, i just lost all my blasted Favorites!!!

maybe i can still get to the files and save what i need, by using the girls hdd with windows on it, setting this one up as a slave, and one of my others as a slave, and copy some stuff over. hopefully i can get some stuff backed up.

but, looks like i'll be re-installing windows.

zexmarquis...considering you have WinXP, you can do a repair install and save all your stuff:

Boot from WinXP CD:
Hit Enter as if you were regularly installing
Hit F8 to agree
Hit R to repair install current version of XP

just my luck...

i try to do the repair on it. and it starts doing it, then i get the screen again, at the top it says in bold " registry error "

and saying if i made a hardware change, return to what i had previously and all this junk.

looks like i don't have much of a choice but to re-install windows.

ever been so angry, that you are laughing?

hehe. this is one of those times for me.

ontop of all this. something is SOOO screw up in windows, the windows XP CD can't repair it, and then i have it try to format it, it won't work!

i let it load its crap, then i get to the page that says enter, i hit enter, then i get to the page that has me press f8 to agree. i press F8 then it looks for copies of windows, apon doing that it gives me the blue screen once again saying

there is a problem with windows, windows will restart so it will not damage any hardwar. BAHAHAHA

And i can't get into safe mode with the command prompt to format it that way either!!!

i just LOVE my luck. whoooo!

soo...uh..anyone care to help me out?

Ok, good news. i poped the HDD into the girls computer, copied bookmarks, files etc..

wouldn't let me format it, by right clicking the drive. i got annoyed, so i just deleted the windows folder.

poped the HDD back into my computer, and its instaling windows now.

so, i got it going again. be back on my computer with boinc up and running again here soon.

um again....not to be belittling or anything, but with XP, it will bluescreen on boot up if you swap drives from one machine to another, UNLESS the 2nd machine has the exact same motherboard and CPU. The mobo drivers will cause it to crash on bootup, so your test methodology is flawed. Looks like you're stuck doing a clean install. hmmmmm. judging by your last post, seems like it was the same mobo, good work!

well the thing is, i'm back up and running perfectly.

did a clean install, and i havn't had a single problem at all.

i guess there's nothing wrong with a clean install anways. nice to feel that speed again, of re-doing windows.

plus, with using so little space on my main HDD, it will defrag in like 10 min.