On Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:52:50 +0200, Nekar Xenos wrote:

> It all started with blackouts. No, it wasn't the power company. The PC
> would spontaneously reset itself. It became more and more frequent. then
> it wouldn't start up again unless I unplugged the power cable. Soon the
> PC started crashing while Windows was loading.. . and after that all I
> could get was CMOS. and then I couldn't even get the PC switched on....
> After removing the CMOS battery for a couple of minutes I could switch
> on the PC again. With Windows badly damaged I had to reformat the HDD
> and reinstall Windows a couple of times. Every time I install Windows it
> works fine for a while and then starts crashing untill I can't start the
> PC up anymore. Last night I tried installing Linux and it crashed with
> 20minutes of install remaining.
> 
> I can't afford a new PC at the moment at all, so is there anything I can
> do?
> 
> I have a Athlon XP 2400 Socket A using the onboard 128Mb SiS graphics
> card and a 250W power supply.

Disassemble the machine, clean it very thoroughly, and put it back 
together.

I had a machine that was behaving similarly and it turned out that there 
was something shorting something out on the system board (best guess); 
giving it a good vacuum fixed it - haven't had a problem since.

Jim

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