Interesting problem I have here.
I just put together a second rig from parts from trades and a spare 1.0GHz T'bird I had laying around, and for some reason I cannot get an OS to completely load. I have tried XP Pro, Win2000, Win98, Win95, Red Hat 9, and even a Slackware Live disk (now called SLAX). The Red Hat stopped loading on a kernel panic error (something CPU related, I forgot to write it down) and the SLAX CD loaded into the OS but my computer restarted when I tried to open a program and then gave me a system disk error up[on trying to reboot.

I am suspecting either the CPU or the mobo, but I don't know enough about this particular problem to make the determination either way.

system specs:
Athlon 1.0GHz T'bird
Syntax SV266A mobo
generic 256MB PC2100
stock HSF and fan
GeForce 4 Ti4200 w/ Iceberq 4 Pro
MGE 350W PSU
Sony DVD ROM drive
15GB Maxtor 5400RPM HDD

first off id check the h/d sounds to me that i could be something in that view! an did you try the old trick shutting the cache off on the cpu in bios when loading the o/s sometimes i had to do that instaling windows xp over a nother o/s..

All of the OSes were attempted after a fresh format (spent a whole night without sleep trying this) and the HDD works, as it was just taken out of my other rig.

I would memtest86 that RAM - I recently went thru alot of older memory PC2100 that I had laying around and found more than half off my older crap tested bad almost instantly. Over 300 errors in the first 30 seconds. That would cause a problem like your describing.

EDIT: Also if your mobo supports it and it would help I have a 1.3 or 1.4 (not real sure on AMD stuff) Duron laying here. Actually have an entire PC that was given to me, hit the power button and nothing works. Tried power supply and that wasnt it. I then figured it was the mobo and the customer said "junk it" - not really sure whats wrong with it but last night I stuck the RAM in another PC and it tested BAD. Might toss your memory in it and take off, not really sure. Its got hard drive, DVD-ROM drive and CD burner. Complete system. Your welcome to parts if needed.

Quote: Originally Posted by aaronrkelly I would memtest86 that RAM - I recently went thru alot of older memory PC2100 that I had laying around and found more than half off my older crap tested bad almost instantly. Over 300 errors in the first 30 seconds. That would cause a problem like your describing.

I guess I could try testing the RAM in my main rig. Thanks for the suggestion.

Edit: I would definately be interested in the CPU at least, if not the whole system, do youo know what mobo it is?

Do you have other ram,h/d to try? I would try them! i just went through this last night im sitting there mad as all h*ll trying to figure out why this o/s would not load! its 3 in the morning an finally i look at the hard drive an bam the jumper was set to CS. Well i changed it to master an bam up an running in about 30 mins ! maybe you could just be over looking something like i did

Quote: Originally Posted by MaTtsPc Do you have other ram,h/d to try? I would try them! i just went through this last night im sitting there mad as all h*ll trying to figure out why this o/s would not load! its 3 in the morning an finally i look at the hard drive an bam the jumper was set to CS. Well i changed it to master an bam up an running in about 30 mins ! maybe you could just be over looking something like i did

Good suggestion, but I did doublecheck the jumper. I will probably try out my other RAM and see if it works tomorrow night.

Ok well let us know how it turns out for you! wish ya the best of luck.

Honestly.. the mobo was working when It left here =P I had XP running fine on it I hope you get it fixed man.. I'd feel horrible if I sent you a bad board

Update: The RAM checks out ok and my RAM from my main rig didn't make a difference either.
After trying to load Win98 again (with negative results), I tried loading Red Hat 9 again to see if I got the same error as last time... I did, but I wrote it down this time. It stopped at:

Kernel panic: CPU context corrupt

I forgot to mention last night that there is also a small nick in the CPU die, and now that I think about it, this could be the problem as well. I will be lucky if it is just the CPU I suppose.
Do you all think this is the case as well, or are their other options to try beyond the obvious?

Here are steps I have taken so far:

checked HDD jumper
reseated HSF and CPU
reseated RAM and checked with known good RAM (even tested suspect RAM, came out ok)
reset CMOS (3 times)
took battery out for 30 minutes
rechecked all wiring and connectors