I can't figure it out....

When i boot up my computer it starts up somewhat. then i load up windows xp boot CD it get's maybe half way threw the install then freezes. It won't load DOS nothing. it just locks up. and at times the monitor won't come on so i have to restart the computer 4 or 5 times then the monitor comes up. Now i tried the memory by switching it out with another, and the harddrive as well, and it still does the same thing. My question is, is there any diagnostic i can get that I can run off a CD or thumbdrive and testes my Motherboard,RAM,harddrive,CPU i just am stuck on this one. Any help would be greatly appericated. Oh and by the way here some specs....


AMD Athlon 3200
512mb DDR
60gig HD
300 watt power supply


Anything else? let me know. thanks in advance.

 

It could be the CPU overheating. or even something as simple as the CMOS battery.
Are all fans running correctly? is the heatsink & fan dust free? One thing I would do is to try swapping out the PSU, these can cause some very strange problems when they start to fail.

 

psu?? u mean prosesser?

 

PSU = Power Supply Unit
That's what I was thinking, is that the power supply isn't producing stable, even current. It could also be that the CD drive is on it's way out, in addition to the possibilities mentioned by kestrel above....

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Ultimate_Boot_CD_Basic_d4019.html
That is full of diagnostics and utilities of all kinds. Download the file, burn the resulting .ISO file to a CD as an image and boot to it. DO NOT burn the .ISO as data; it won't boot or work correctly. Most CD burning applications have an option to create a disc from an image file; use that option and point it to the .ISO image file....

Oh.... Welcome to Major Geeks! :major