trying to rebuild PC, locking up or rebooting

[dwcasey]

This is a "favor" for a friend. He had WinME on it and it started having problems. HD started making weird noises. I suggested he RMA the drive.

He got a new drive. We started to install Win98SE and it locked up after it's first reboot (i think trying to install drivers for devices).

This is one of those all-in-one motherboard. Audio, video, network, usb...and an AMR modem card.

1. I don't know the manufacture of the board, I do have BIOS numbers, but haven't been able to cross-ref.

2. I tried to install Linux just to see if it was a Windows thing, Linux locked up, too, just have the CD booted.

So, is this a hardware problem? Sounds like it to me. Any good "free" diag tools?

I downloaded some stuff from

http://www.bootdisk.com

and tested the memory, but one tested said it failed and another said it passed...still locks up.

I've tried to disable all the "built-in" stuff in the BIOS, but it still locks up.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[nightowl17]

http://www.motherboards.org/moboidtools.html

This will help ID the MOBqard which wiil give you a good stsrt
nightowl17

 

[SESaskDFC]

Howdy:

Try going into BIOS and disabling the on-board anti-virus program.

Murray

 

[wolluf]

Can you swap out the memory (or just use one stick if more than one - try each in turn)?