Hello,

I'm completely new on this forum but hope to find some help here. I have a fairly old PC, i.e. P3, 600MHZ on which I want to install a windows operating system i.e. Windows XP, or W98. The PC is mainly for internet nothing else.

I have started completely from scratch, i.e. formatted the C-drive, repartioned the disk, followed the windows installation procedures for Windows98 for PC's without operating systems etc etc.

Every singel time I start an installation no matter which system and also through various different CD rom's (I have tried 2 x W98, 2 x Windows XP various versions) the PC stalls after some time (ie for XP after 30 miuntes or so) and I need to abort the installation unsuccessfully.

I have also run CHCKDSK, SCANDSK etc with no irragularities noted.

Is this a hardware problem??

Many thanks, marcel

Howdy and welcome to AskMe HelpDesk:

90% of all install problems can be traced back to ram problems..

Suggest you get a program called memtest86.. install it on a floppy and use that to boot your system.. Let it run for a couple of hours (the more passes it makes the better) and see what turns up..

If you have multiple sticks of ram, run the program on them one at a time and then altogether..

One more thing you could try is removing everythin other than your video card, hard-drive and ram (modem, nic, soundcard, etc) and try the install like that..

Murray

Apologies I'm a little bit of a PC nerd to these sort of things but what do you mean with:

If you have multiple sticks of ram, run the program on them one at a time and then altogether

And where can I find "memtest86"

Tx, MArcel

Memtest86

You will need to open your computer up and find the ram.. If there is more than one ram module, then remove all but one.. Run memtest86 on it..

Replace that stick with another and run memtest again.. Keep going until all ram has been tested..

Murray

Just want to add only open a PC if you know what you are confident with what you are doing. Just "diving in" can harm both you and your PC ending in expensive repair (or hospital) bills. If memtest comes back with bad results, it might be worth taking it to a tech guy who knows exactly what they are doing.