Hardware malfunction - help please!!

Hi - I am a fairly experienced PC builder/upgrader, but have run into a 'blue screen of death' problem which I need some help with.

I am reinstalling Windows 2000 on an AMD PC, which has been running it fine up till now. I am installing it on a 120GB hard drive that has been partitioned 40/80, with Windows being in stalled on the 40GB partition. I previously had the OS installed on this disk, partitioned 50/40/30.

OK, so far so good, the install goes fine until Windows starts checking keyboard & mouse and warns that the screen may flicker a bit, which it does, but then suddenly the screen goes blue with the following warning:

***Hardware malfunction
Call your hardware vendor for support
***The system has halted***

I have tried swapping out keyboard, mouse, CD ROM drive.
I have the bare minimum hardware installed (1 memory stick, 1 hard drive, graphics card, monitor).

Any ideas anyone?? Thanks in advance, John.

There is a M$ article here, but when you say:

The Jeep said:

I am reinstalling Windows 2000 on an AMD PC, which has been running it fine up till now

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do you mean that you are installing because you started to experience problems or did you have other reasons for the re-install?

did this system have win2000 on it before? Has anything changed at all ?
Many BSOD's are very unhelpful, and often nothing actually to do with the problem. Initial thoughts on this one is vga card. Is it a seperate card or onboard, I'd also swap out ram and hdd as a matter of course and go from there. Believe it or not, ram often hinders an install even when been in a previously working system - ofen filecopy problems for some odd reason, had a lot of these a few years a go, 98 was runing fine for ages but 2k wouldnt even go on.
What motherboard is it?

Thanks, that article is definitely dealing with my problem, though, having swapped everything out except the PSU, I'm still no better off (memory, HDD, CR-ROM, graphics card, keyboard, mouse, the lot).

The reason I am reinstalling my OS is because of a virus problem which then led me to upgrade my antivirus prog which wouldn't install until the previous version had been uninstalled. However, try as I might, I just couldn't uninstall the old version (even with specialist software), so I decided on a fresh install (something I've done many times before, but not recently).

Wait a minute...wait a minute....I am detecting a malfunction in the...OK, seriously, I remember last week the power to my CPU fan (and all other fans) failed and I got a hardware monitor alert. When I had a look in the BIOS I discovered that my CPU temperature was over 100 DegC (!!). I quickly switched off, opened the PC and blew air over the VERY hot CPU.

This problem has just recurred as I'm trying to reinstall Windows and it seems to originate from a dodgy Molex at the fan controller (at first I thought it was the 20-pin mobo connector because when the fans went down - which I noticed because my blue lights went off! - I wiggled this connector and they came back on again). Yes, it's the connection to the fc..oh dear, not good.

So it may be that my mobo and/or CPU are now a bit shagged. I'm looking on eBay and they're pretty cheap to replace, so maybe that's what I'll do. It's an Asus A7V133 mobo with 1.2 GHz AMD CPU.

However, it does seem a bit strange...everything else is going fine until I get to the 'installing hardware, keyboard, mouse' screen where the display flickers a couple of times then 'boof', blue screen horror. It must be detecting something it's not happy with - could there be something amis in my BIOS settings? Hmmm....that CPU temperature was way over, though, so some damage has probably been done somewhere.

sort out cpu fan first !

Thanks, yes I've replaced the molex. I think what's happened is that the overheating of the CPU has caused some damage (cpu and/or mobo) that didn't cause my PC to fail immediately, but as I'm reinstalling Windows there are some hardware checks being made of the whole system and something is being detected there.

Its not overclocked is it? Did you try a different vga card/ram? Also worth trying failsafe settings in bios. Its possible the cpu is frazzled but IME not likely.

The Athlon processor that you have is probably a Thunderbird or XP type.

The MAXIMUM running temperature for those processors is 95/90ºC and they should be running 20-30º lower in normal use.

I have two non ASUS boards here with cooked XP 1700 and 1800 processors. Unfortunately, they took the boards with them.

Athlon XPs have been the bain of my life on occasion. Everything about them is critical - PSU startup, heat sink metallurgy, thermal compound, fan efficiency, etc.

And the ability of an overheated CPU to take out a mobo is an unforgivable design flaw. Give me a P4 any day.

Interesting...my CPU is a 1.2GHz Athlon, which has run fine (not overclocked) for about 5 years (though not in constant use).

I've found a replacement cpu, but finding an exact same mobo won't be so easy (some on eBay but in USA). So my plan is to change out my cpu in the hope that the mobo is not fried. I wonder, could a damaged mobo cause damage to a good cpu?

The Jeep said:

Interesting...my CPU is a 1.2GHz Athlon

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I referred to Athlon XPs, not to Athlons. They are quite different.

I've found a replacement cpu, but finding an exact same mobo won't be so easy (some on eBay but in USA). So my plan is to change out my cpu in the hope that the mobo is not fried. I wonder, could a damaged mobo cause damage to a good cpu?

Click to expand...

Easily.

Frankly, to avoid the hassle, and since CPUs are much more expensive than mobos, I'd buy a bundle - mobo, CPU, heatsink, fan, memory - all from one supplier. You can then get any fault resolved without any pointy finger problems between suppliers, or anyone claiming that an old component damaged a new one.

Did you try the other things yet? I'm not convinced its the cpu or board

eggplant said:

Did you try the other things yet? I'm not convinced its the cpu or board

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I would welcome any suggestions as to how to proceed further. I haven't used any diagnostic software or hardware, so apart from changing out memory, graphics, hdd, cdrom, keyboard & mouse, there's not much I can do, or is there?

It is strange, as the machine was working OK before the reinstall, despite the overheating of the CPU. It is only when Windows is checking the hardware (just after the screen flicker test) that the thing bombs. Perhaps there is some free diagnostic s/w somewhere I could use?

Well, he says he's changed all the major components apart from the PSU, and I suppose that's a possibility because a failing one can affect the system in many ways. A BIOS reset might be a good idea too.

But, from what he's described, I wouldn't trust the state of the processor. It might work ok in one instance, but from experience, a processor of that class will become glitchy and you end up going through the whole process again.

Well folks, I seem to have solved the problem (thanks for suggestions ).
I went into the BIOS and set it to default, saved the changes and carried on with the Windows installation...and, hey presto, it's working!
So I have unnecessarily bought a new CPU...only 15 quid, mind, so it'll do as a spare. However, I have to say I'm impressed with the original one - it may last for years yet!
But it all just goes to show...