Ahhhhh [PC Problem]

There are no POST errors that come up. I read on another site that the VGA could be 'dying', whatever that means.

CPU usage is still ridiculously high. Very annoying. Onboard VGA works now, I think it just only works every other boot/when left awhile like the AGP card did.

If its not the CMOS, not the GFX card and not the RAM, what could it be?

What is using the CPU (process name)? Can it be disabled?

I don't know what 'dying' VGA means, usually they work, or they don't. It could be a goosed mainboard but that sounds unlikely. I would re-install XP again as it could be the forced reboot you did caused damage to the install. It's happened to me and it's easier to redo than spend ages trying to fix!

The forced reboot happened BEFORE the format and again during the XP installation (after I formatted the drive)...

There is no specific process using the memory, just CPU usage is at 100%.

If it comes on again I'll have another look. spose I could try using the Repair console

If you look at the processes tab on task manager it will list the progs running and give you a current CPU utilisation for each. Click on the CPU column twice it to sort them into descending order and see what is at the top - this will be what's using CPU cycles.

Also look at the memory usage. If you can ID the hog and kill it you may be able to get somewhere. If it's the system idle process running at or close to 100% you can ignore it - that's normal. If you can't and the disk is running flat out then it's possibly a corrupt driver or prefetch problem.

If you have repair disks they would be worth using, repair console will probably get you nowhere for this kind of issue but you may get lucky.

As the forced reboot was before the format it is possible it's a RAM problem though I'm not convinced. If you have two sticks check they're the same, and if not take one out - just leave at least 256mb if you can!

They are both the same - 512MB Crucial RAM. I bought them recently - used. The person I bought them off said he tested them and they were 100% working. He also had 100% feedback.

I've tried taking one stick out but it won't boot. Also, the monitor won't switch on at all now

I took both RAM sticks out and booted and got a POST error just to see if it was working

I'm seriously annoyed now :(

PS... what PC are you posting this from? Can you try that monitor?

I'm on a PC in the office. Could be a boot sector virus...I'll give chat a try :(

I'm on a PC in the office (home office), I tried this monitor last night but I'll try it again. I've also unplugged all my PCI cards and tried onboard GFX and sound and still no luck!

Best of luck. I've had a boot sector virus before and they can cause odd symptoms, usually the OS install will crash out or stall as the disk is checked or shortly thereafter.

The CPU utilisation does suggest that there is a driver or OS subsystem issue. Does the same thing happen in safe mode but not in safe mode without networking for example? Booting in logging mode may reveal something but...so many options and It's often hard to really diagnose such things at a distance. I hope it's something simple that a recovery attempt will fix. Real time chat would be much better but I'm afraid I'm going to bed, hopefully HG can help you out.

Okay last night on the advice of HG I removed the RAM. I left one stick in, and it seems okay. It restarts and turns on straight away (no monitor trouble) and CPU usage is between 2-5%. Could it all have been caused by the RAM though?

I'll try with both sticks in when I get in. The other stick seems to put CPU usage at 100% when I put it in but that could just be chance; ie something else decided to choke the CPU while that RAM was in.

Anyway hopefully its fixed now but I would like to have 1GB of RAM again instead of 512MB

I though you did that when I suggested it with each stick? I guess you put the bad one back in and didn't try the other?

RAM can produce some weird effects. Usually it will cause the machine to be unstable, lock up or blue screen. If taking that stick out causes it to run normally try it with stat stick alone. If it chokes you have your culprit, if it runs OK then it suggests a chipset issue on the mainboard.

Buy another stick, try to get crucial again or better buy a 1gb stick. It's ridiculously cheap these days!

DDR is not so cheap as I would like. I'll do more tests tonight just to make sure it is the RAM. You wouldn't believe how many sticks of RAM I got in the quest for the 1GB

And now one of those doesn't work

Cheap is relative, I suppose. The first RAM I bought was £25 per Megabyte so around £30-£35 for 1 a Gigabyte of DDR seems cheap to me.

Moral is don't by cheap, generic RAM. It may work for a while but it tends to bite you in the end.

It cost me £40 for a gig which some guys on another website said was a rip off and that DDR2 is cheaper or something.

Anyway its working now! on a gig. Came on straight away. The only problem is when it started up there were FOUR network icons in the right hand corner for some reason. I only have two network devices installed; Ethernet and wireless PCI cards. So that was weird...

But it seems okay now. Maybe the BIOS had a blip or something or the RAM got a bit upset when I had to manually shut the PC down.

I even ordered some CMOS batteries too

Good news! £40 isn't tooo bad. At least it's working.