CPU fan is operational.

 

he may have meant GPU fan

 

Sounds like a ram issue... try each chip individually if you have more than one, if not try to get a chip that you know works & try that out

 

At this point it could still be either the video card (which I think is more likely) or the memory.

I would say to replace the card first. If you're getting the vertical lines at the BIOS screen, you'll know right away if the card is the fix.

If the card replacement doesn't resolve the issue, try the memory - you can try reseating all of it first, then removing all of the chips and putting them back one by one (or in pairs if required). Check the manual for your mobo to find out which is slot 1 and start with a chip there first.

 

if it was a ram issue it would be the vram on the card. a system ram issue would most likely present a fatal error or a memorry address error not screen funkiness.

 

I've seen onboard RAM cause these kinds of issues before. I still think the vid card is the better choice, but if that fails..

 

ive seen it cause cutouts, flashes, partial sreen loss... but never "streaking"

 

I have seen streaking ram issues twice... confused me the first time too cuz i didnt think ram would do that but it can..... if its not the vid card then my moneys on the ram.

 

Ok, so I changed out the video card. No more streaking (yet), but the computer is still failing to boot up. Sometimes it gets to the login screen and sometimes it does not. One time I got a boot error, so I put the XP disk in andran the XP setup. I opened up the Recover console and was able to look around on all of the drives (strangely, my C drive was now D, my D drive was now E, and a separate HD that was normally H was C).

I don't know what to use in the recovery console. I could not change directories into Program Files to try and copy files out of there. I exited the console and Windows tried to boot up and then crashed again.

I forced the thing back to the XP setup screen. Should I just reinstall XP? It will complicate my life, but it may be the only way to get things fixed.

Advice?

 

Mirror ENTIRE hard drive to another, then format reload the main hard drive. Then, reload the main drive...and copy the files back that you need. (my docs/etc etc etcetc)

 

Excuse my noobness, but there is no "mirror" command in the XP recovery console. I guess I can try "copy *.*", but I'm not it will work since I can't access anything but the root directory (and windows dir) on each drive. I can't "cd" to the "program files" directory and I can't "md" on my other hard drive which makes me believeI won't be able to copy either.

I ran chkdsk last night on the main hard drive and it appears to be fine. I think I'll try reloading XP tonight. If that doesn't work, I'll have to format the drive and deal with the data loss.

 

found teh problem!

 

Disconnect the other drive that is being detected as C:. Then boot.
You might have to do an F8 to reinstall VGA drivers. Then once in the OS you can install the new video card drivers.

 

word word, no worries on the newb stuff.

mirror the drive is just a fancy way of saying copy the entire drive over to another, so that when you reload it, you have all the old data incase you missed something when backing up.

 

Unfortunately, it's the only way I can access any of the drives since the OS won't boot. Actually, I did get the OS to boot in Safe Mode once, but as I was installing the new video drivers, XP experienced a fatal error in lsass.exe and forced a shutdown before the drivers finished installing - which makes me believe it is indeed an XP corruption issue.

On the bright side, working in the recovery console brings back memories of the old DOS days.