Computer keeps crashing at Windows Logo screen

Hi everyone,

This has been kinda buggin me for some time and I know these type of issues are pretty tough to determine what the problem may be, but Ive used Major Geeks before and let me tell you, Ive had some really nice experienced people help me out a lot in the past, so figured Id give it a shot to see who can help me with this again....

Ok, I have a clone built computer. Only about 6 months old.

Specs
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WINDOWS XP HOME SP2

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Windsor 2000MHz HT 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Dual Core Processor
MB - Gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S4 Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard
RAM - Patriot Signature Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit System Memory
Case - APEVIA (ASPIRE) X-ALIEN-BK/500 Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case ATX 500W dual fan w/ automatic fan speed control. Connector 20 + 4 pin Power Supply
DVD - SAMSUNG Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 5X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache ATA/ATAPI DVD Burner With LightScribe
Video - eVGA 256-P2-N541-TX Geforce 7600GS 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card
HITACHI Deskstar 7K80 HDS728080PLA380 (0A30356) 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Also using another non SATA hard drive 250GG hard drive 4200 as the secondary
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Since about a week after I had bought the computer from my friend, it has been crashing at the Windows Logo screen.

It would reboot, come up with the Windows logo, the loading line below the logo would go across, the hard drive would load with a bright light, then it would flicker a real dim light for about 30 seconds, and the logo would stay on the screen, then the hard drive would flicker a few times with a bright light, and BOOM......the computer shuts off.

IT DOESNT DO THIS ALL THE TIME. Just once in awhile. Sometimes it will load up just fine and be fine for about 2-3 months, but eventually the computer will crash while in the desktop.

Well, I figured it might had been a virus or bad corrupted files in Windows, SO I reformatted the entire primary hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP Home SP2 back onto the hard drive with a clean slate.

Well I noticed the crashing at the Windows Logo screen GOT WORSE. It took me 8 attempts to reboot, and eventually I had to boot up to Safe Mode, let it stay in safe mode for 20 mins and then rebooted back to normal mode, and it eventually came up, but the windows logo screen took a min to finish loading which was abnormal for Windows to load up, compared to the specs above.

NOW....my question is this.......

Should I

A) Get a new master hard drive and ditch the 80GB one even though its only 6 months old.......OR

B) Look into getting a better power supply being that its only 500W? OR

C) Do you guys think I need more RAM?

At this time its tough for me to figure what may be causing the problem, but I do remember the guy telling me that sold the computer that 500W's should be enough to run my computer, but he said I should consider later upgrading to 600-700W

So far my temperature meter on my case, has showed normal and no over-heating on my powersupply. No weird noises or anything.

 

One sure way to see if it is a windows based problem is to boot off a cd like knoppix or other program and see if it is stable there.

If it goes fine for a month or 2 ,I would suspect a hardware malfunction(crimped/broken cables or loose connections)


Have you checked the hardware manager for conflicts?

Get a hd and try that (after trying a boot cd
power supply looks adequate
memory looks great



afewideasw/coffee

 

Yep, no conflicts in the Device Manager at all

I DO use the Windows XP Home cd to boot up with when I come across crashes, and what I do to get out of it, is I either boot up to safe mode and then exit out back to normal mode, and it starts up fine, or Ill use the cd and do a repair installation, but before I execute to DO the repair, I exit out and it restarts back to normal mode and starts up fine.

Now ONE thing I forgot to mention and right now, its not doing it anymore but sometimes if I run Napster, DC++, Limewire and I have a tremendous amount of upload bandwidth being used (downloading like over 50 files causing the cable modem to work overtime) Ive noticed the computer crashing a few times from that.

In the past, the computer would also crash over night while I would have Kasperky do its full system scan.

Right NOW, since Ive done a full format on the hard drive and reinstall of Windows XP, it seems to be working ok right now. Ive rebooted over 8 times and it seems to be ok, but I know that the crashing will return eventually after a month or so. So yah, Im thinking about going with another SATA HD as well and seeing if this does the trick.

I havent checked my cables or wires inside the case, but after having it looked at my a computer store down the street, they ran a diagnostics on my hardware, and they stated everything passed and they didnt find any problems, so not sure what to make out of that. Be honest, I dont think they did squat to my computer. lol