GRRR Squad Forum

Could work, shot in the dark though.

i did try a new HDD, and it did exactly the same

but how much would changing the thermal paste on the GPU make any difference?

ok then I'm assuming it's finished loading the drivers and you get the weird screen after it displays
[starting windows] which loads just after those drivers.

It's at this point it's interigating the hard drive and looking if there is a windows installation.

If it completely freaks out at this point then you have 3 possible causes

1. Poke GFX card - the XP Vesa Standard drive freaks out when initializing the card - bad result - coz it's a poked card
2. Hard drive read error - The XP install system tries to locate windows and has a problem with some system files and freaks out
This aint such a bad thing, best thing to do in this scenario is to actually take the hard drive out and do a format on it, on
another machine.
3. Hard drive controller freak out - this is bad, that means the motherboard IDE controller chip died, there aint no commin back
from the dead. Unless you come back as a zombie, which aint so great either, if you've seen L4d or L4D2 .. . *sigh

YES

Does it at least start displaying that it is loading some drivers for the install [at the bottome of the screen] before it goes all double-dashy on yer ass?

Are these dash actual characters or is it part of the screen i.e. like an overlay. When my card went the lines were an overlay and not actual characters

try connecting 380volt to the bitch

hi lee:

1 check
2 check
3 check
4 check - (the first time) didnt ask me again ??
5 check uncheck - dosnt get past this/hung on the first question (was only one hdd)
didnt get to 6

edit - soz mega forgot your Q:

the screen is FULL f the '='

like so:

|-------------------------------------------------------------|
|=====================================|
|=====================================|
|=====================================|
etc etc

where "|" and "-" are the frame of the screen

Try identify exactly where this all happens:

1. Machine starts, switches on display counting memory.
2. Machine then tries to identify hard drives
3. Goes to boot screen, tries to access CDROM
4. Displays message: Hit any key to install XP
5. Loads the Blue install screen and starts loading XP install files to start the install proceedure
6. Gets to a "Starting Windows" part of the install where you can select which hard drive to install onto.
7. Copies the basic install files needed for the GUI install
8. reboots and does step 1, 2, 3 and 4 again
9. Loads Gui and detects hardware
10. Install files and then prompts to select Regional Settings and keyboard settings.
11. Finishes the install and reboots doing step 1, 2, 3 and 4 again
12. Loads XP and prompts to enter license key
13. Completes the install and loads desktop prompting to activate.
14. Makes you a cup of coffee and feeds the dogs....

sounds more like the hard drive controller, where exactly does it do this interesting ===== thing you are talking about?\