WIN XP pro won't reboot/load OS

[ItsBrokeAgain]

Here is a wierd one!

first off I would like to thank you for helping me with my dellema in advance. I know this post is more of a short story, I just want to give all info i can. I am about to pull my head bald!

the system:
PC shop built PC This PC was built in Dec 2001
Win XP Pro fully updated with all patches
Latest Drivers tested/ factory MS drivers tested (for all hardware)
FIC AD11xp [AMD761/VIA chipset w/ h/s & fan]
Athlon XP 1600+ retail kit w/ h/s and fan ( No not OCed)
512Meg Kingston DDR
Lite-On CD-RW 16x10x32
matsumi 4x CD-rom (don't laff lite on won't boot from cd)
Maxtor 20gig UDMA 66 5400 HD
cheepo 1.44M floopy
split in 2 part. C:\13 gig E:\6gig
Boots from C:\ no muti OS here
built on sound card AC 97 type
PNY GF2 MX 400 vid card ( no not OCed)
generic Intel based NIC T10/100
Alcatel Speed touch ext ethernet DSL modem
BT848 vid cap card (inop no drivers/disabled in HW profile)
Generic Case W/300 watt certified P/S
ms kb (p/s2)
ms wheel mouse (p/s2)
extra cheep sounding speakers!
Gateway EV500 CRT
yes i do dust regularly also with canned air.

What happens is whenever I start the PC Cold, or at the start of a day things seem fine. it takes a goodly amount of time to "get things loaded on desktop and I cannot do anything for about 45 seconds. I note that Norton AV has a red X on it in systray also
then it simply springs to life.
all i have running in bkgrnd is vol control NAV 2002, AIM, and that dang MSN messenger!

Ok it gets worse!
i hope u are still reading, man i hate typing!

if i "turn computer off" or try and warm or cold boot
I get several errors depends on the puter's mood i think.

#1 occasionally
Black screen, white letters,
Windows cannot load ntoskrnl.exe please reinstall a copy of this file.

Reboot:

#2 always jsut about
Windows cannot find windows/system32/config
says it's missing or corrupt.
i tried 4 restores!
please use win xp disc and press "r" to restore this file

To get rid of this and reboot I have to actually turn the PC off and unplug the power cord or turn the I-O hard switch to off for about 20 minutes.
Like some capacitor has to "discharge"

then if i', lucky i see my lil win xp boot screen and the thing goes back to slow desktop start. and then back to normal like now!

also preodically when using CD-RW things slow down considerably. almost like using a 133mHz PC. as of the last re-install i did. that may be due to my CDRW being a slave drive on the IDE 1 (not same as HD)

what I do Know:

I have tired 2 other HD's in the PC, i can't even install win98 on any drive using this machine.
I have reformatted and re-installed XP pro 3 times one day. I have run the "restore" utility also.
Oh and i eate meh reg with Nortons Utils 2002 (i will never use again)

I think i have an IDE controller going south. I note that when this happens I see no HD activity lite nor sound from HD before error messages.
I have even switched IDE cables around and swapped known good ones.
I have no real clue as to what is wrong only meh speculations to the IDE conrtroller.

well, thanks for reading this expremely long tedious post you deserve a pat on the back even if you can;t help me!
any help would be greatly appreciated as my system is under warranty, but I have no money to get anywork done on it unless it's a covered part.
u see we have a baby on the way! :-D so i have to be "frugal"

thanks,
Rick

[BipolarBill]

Two things stand out - the 300 watt PS and the Alcasmell Spudtouch mediocrum.

You have enough gadgets to justify a 400 watt PS. It's a good investment anyway.

That Alcatel modem has caused symptoms that you describe and much more. It's the single worst USB device ever and is almost universally despised. BT Internet and BellSouth bought millions of these bogus modems in order to (1) Save money and (2) Prevent users from sharing their internet connection. The modems have severe power issues and will bring a beefy server to it's knees.

Update the drivers for that piece of junk. Test the PC without it for a day if you must. Be prepared to call your ISP for an Ethernet solution.

[ItsBrokeAgain]

well, that is an Ethernet Alca. I have BellSouth "does not offer tech support with any other modem(PCI and USB) with XP" like they really "help" anyways-lol
Altho this prob started b4 the DSL modem was used, i have no drivers installed for it it's not USB (thank God!) and i just added the extra CD Room the other day. (after the prob)

I have unplugged everyting but bare necessities to run this sheetbox, but still get this error

I could use a bigger PS tho never can have enuff PoWeR!!

thanks,
Rick

P.S. Love that Texas Flag u got there!

[BipolarBill]

Now that I've done my Alcatel schpiel , I would suggest overheated memory or CPU too.

Do you overclock?

Yah...it's a nice Texas flag, no? dmoltrup optimized it for me.

[ItsBrokeAgain]

No sir I do not over clock,

I tried using canned air to "cool" the board components between boots. no good

As i stated in my previous problem, everything is "stock" and I do not over clock anything. I do not see or hear any HD activity when this problem occours.


Oh about the alcaHell, phone company charged me $125 for that thing! hell somtimes i loose sync! makes me mad!


thanks
Rick

[BipolarBill]

Ok. Let me regale you with a story of recent vintage. I had a client with a 233MMX mini-Presario that was - ahem - less than stellar and utterly pooched. I decided to patch together a Win2K PC from her old parts, a new WD 40GB BB, an old Biostar M6TBA, slotket w/Celeron 400 and some odd RAM. Since the Biostar could only handle AGP 1.0 cards, I was limited in my choices and plugged in a Creative Banshee that was lying around.

This was about 3 months ago. Install went well, but little "issues" kept popping up. Yahoo Messenger would lock up Win2K solid. I had GoBack installed, but GoBack never helped. I "Repaired" that OS many times, and demanded that she uninstall Yahoo Messenger. The lockups were intermittent, but still came. One day she calls and tells me that the video is tearing when it locks up. Aha! I know now that it's a video issue.

I dutifully head over there and Repair, reinstall fresh video drivers and reinstall SP2. Guess what? She calls me within a day, saying that it's doing it again. Ok...it looks like I'm going to have to operate! Believe it or not, I still have access to the same video card that came with the Biostar - an STB 4400 TNT. It's in her sister's PC in the same house! Think! Think! I go fetch a TNT2 for her sister (upgrade, obviously) and move the STB over to hers.

I called the client the other day. I cried, "You never call me anymore! <sniff>. It worked. That motherboard and video card love each other and Win2K is acting like Win2K again.

[ItsBrokeAgain]

Hummm That could be my problem.
I will have to find a vid card to try as i gave my old one away-lol it was a sis 30x something or other.

thanks!