what is causing this problem

[Junkstyle]

need some suggestions for this problem.

- system sometimes hangs or errors during reboot right before the Windows XP loading screen
- have tried a different sata drive (same model) and that didn't fix the problem
- have tried a different sata controller on the motherboard and that didn't fix the problem
- have tried different power rails from my powersupply and that didn't fix the problem

Nothing is overclocked. Problem happens when the computer is both cold and warm. Doesn't crash once i'm in Windows and I can leave my computer on all the time. But when i'm patching for security or drivers I have to reboot and I encounter this problem sometimes.

here are the pieces to this puzzle:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB 3.5" SATA
Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550
OCZ Gold Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500

I'm thinking its a bad mobo. I'm going to try install the new bios and see if that fixes anything.

 

[Ken2012]

MBR gone bad? If you've got your WinXP installation disk handy, try running the "FIXMBR" command via the recovery console. Has worked for me in the past when Windows will not boot. Otherwise you could reformat your HDD...

 

[ANova]

It sounds like a bad installation, but then you did mention you tried a different hard drive so I'm assuming you reinstalled windows as well? If so then it could be any number of things. The motherboard would also be my first guess followed by the ram or power supply. The system draws the most power on startup, so if the power supply isn't feeding it enough that could very well cause the system to freeze. You also might want to try resetting the bios to default or the cmos.

 

[Mize]

Try underclocking your RAM and see if this fixes it. If it does you have timing problems. Been there done that.