Recurring config/system boot error problem

Any advice/opinions greatly appreciated with this please if anybody has any
experience of it:

Duron 1400, PC Chips 825 mobo, 256 ddr 333, 40gb 7200 maxtor hd, G4 mx440
64mb agp, cdrw, cd, WinXP.

The system was built about a year ago for a youngster's first pc. The first
time the problem happened was after about 2 months when it was admitted by
the user that the power was just turned off. At restart, it wouldn't..
'windows could not restart due to corrupt windows/system32/config/system'
error message.
This was soon solved by restoring the hive and all was well for about 8
months when it suddenly happened again, but the correct shutdown procedure
was 'apparantly' followed. So the hive was restored again...
Everything ok again until 3 weeks ago when it happened yet again. This time
tho, another factor was introduced.. a game (Champ manager 05) had been
installed which was played fine for a while but after shutdown it would not
restart..same error message.
Yet again I repaired it and also updated all relevant drivers and thoroughly
cleaned it out and reinstalled all the software and tested everything (ie,
games, office apps, you name it). It was turned off and on multiple times
with no problems or glitches, so back it went... and back it came like a
homesick boomerang!
At one stage it went into a continuous reboot cycle. Safe mode was not
possible, hanging at mup.sys (and I looked into that one quite extensively
without any joy)
chkdsk vaguely reported some 'unrecoverable errors'
So I wiped it completely, reformatted and reinstalled XP and everything
else... and I've done that twice now and I'm getting extremely frustrated to
say the least!
Needless to say, it's coming back again and I've finally given in to the
fact it must be a hardware problem.

So is it going to be the cpu, the ram or the mobo?
I've got memtest ready to test the ram, but can anyone recommend anything
similar to test the mobo/cpu?

Apart from registry corruption, is sudden power loss likely to damage
anything else in a way that can't be fixed by a reinstall?

Am I missing anything here???

Thanks
Andy

In article <cq7or6$22s$>, "rat"
says...
<snip>
>
> So is it going to be the cpu, the ram or the mobo?
> I've got memtest ready to test the ram, but can anyone recommend anything
> similar to test the mobo/cpu?
>
> Apart from registry corruption, is sudden power loss likely to damage
> anything else in a way that can't be fixed by a reinstall?

Depends how it's caused - just switching off shouldn't, but a mains
fault could kill anyting.
>
> Am I missing anything here???
>
Could be hard drive too. The easiest tests (although time-consuming)
are RAM and HD, so run them (in that order) and see what happens.

Thanks for the response John and Rob... I realised after I posted that I
hadn't included the HD in the list of things I could test and I will
probably do that first with the maxtor utility.

The thing that gets me with the whole issue is that I cannot get the machine
to go wrong when in my possession. I'm relying on the user's description of
what happened but it never does it for me!

These things are sent to try us I s'pose...
Cheers
Andy

"rat" <> wrote in message
news:cq8psd$82u$...
> Thanks for the response John and Rob... I realised after I posted that I
> hadn't included the HD in the list of things I could test and I will
> probably do that first with the maxtor utility.
>
> The thing that gets me with the whole issue is that I cannot get the
machine
> to go wrong when in my possession. I'm relying on the user's description
of
> what happened but it never does it for me!
>
> These things are sent to try us I s'pose...

If it helps, I had almost the exact same symptoms recently on
a PC I repaired. It was a failing hard disk (Maxtor in this case).
Try running the HD manuf's diagnostic on it from a boot floppy.
HTH
--
Rob

In article <cq8psd$82u$>, "rat" says...
> Thanks for the response John and Rob... I realised after I posted that I
> hadn't included the HD in the list of things I could test and I will
> probably do that first with the maxtor utility.

Check RAM first, as faulty RAM could make the HD appear faulty.
>
> The thing that gets me with the whole issue is that I cannot get the machine
> to go wrong when in my possession. I'm relying on the user's description of
> what happened but it never does it for me!
>
Maybe he has a dodgy electricity supply, or keeps the box somewhere that makes it overheat?
Is he overloading the USB with peripherals? Has he got a trojan that only causes problems
when he's hooked up to the net? I know these are fairly improbable causes, but they might
be worth considering if you can't track the faults on your bench.

"Rob Hemmings" <> wrote in message
news:cq9ijc$2vu$...
>
> "rat" <> wrote in message
> news:cq8psd$82u$...
>> Thanks for the response John and Rob... I realised after I posted that I
>> hadn't included the HD in the list of things I could test and I will
>> probably do that first with the maxtor utility.
>>
>> The thing that gets me with the whole issue is that I cannot get the
> machine
>> to go wrong when in my possession. I'm relying on the user's description
> of
>> what happened but it never does it for me!
>>
>> These things are sent to try us I s'pose...
>
> If it helps, I had almost the exact same symptoms recently on
> a PC I repaired. It was a failing hard disk (Maxtor in this case).
> Try running the HD manuf's diagnostic on it from a boot floppy.
> HTH
> --
> Rob
>

Thanks Rob...
Further developments tho.... I downloaded Powermax from maxtor and created
the floppy boot disk but it just would not load (the fdd just whirs and
whirs and clicks), so I tried going into safe mode and that worked.
The Event viewer tipped me off that the HD had a bad blockSo I scheduled a
scandisk and rebooted. It successfully went into scan mode whereupon I had
to go out, leaving it to do its stuff. On my return the desktop is there
with everything intact! I've rebooted a few times to see if anything is
amiss and it starts up normally every time, no errors... I was under the
impression a hive registry corruption (ie the original config/system error)
could only be repaired in a certain way.. would scandisk fix it or would
that indicate perhaps it wasn't that problem in the first place?

Any idea where I can view a log of the scan to see what it found and fixed?
I'm currently back to square one with no idea if it's going to happen again
or not. I'll try memtest next, tho I really would like to run powermax
somehow, but I'm fast losing patience with this machine!!

Cheers
Andy

"rat" <> wrote in message
news:cqa7b7$rmq$...
>
> "Rob Hemmings" <> wrote in message
> news:cq9ijc$2vu$...
> >
> > "rat" <> wrote in message
> > news:cq8psd$82u$...
> >> Thanks for the response John and Rob... I realised after I posted that
I
> >> hadn't included the HD in the list of things I could test and I will
> >> probably do that first with the maxtor utility.
> >>
> >> The thing that gets me with the whole issue is that I cannot get the
> > machine
> >> to go wrong when in my possession. I'm relying on the user's
description
> > of
> >> what happened but it never does it for me!
> >>
> >> These things are sent to try us I s'pose...
> >
> > If it helps, I had almost the exact same symptoms recently on
> > a PC I repaired. It was a failing hard disk (Maxtor in this case).
> > Try running the HD manuf's diagnostic on it from a boot floppy.
> > HTH
> > --
> > Rob
> >
>
> Thanks Rob...
> Further developments tho.... I downloaded Powermax from maxtor and
created
> the floppy boot disk but it just would not load (the fdd just whirs and
> whirs and clicks), so I tried going into safe mode and that worked.
> The Event viewer tipped me off that the HD had a bad blockSo I scheduled a
> scandisk and rebooted. It successfully went into scan mode whereupon I had
> to go out, leaving it to do its stuff. On my return the desktop is there
> with everything intact! I've rebooted a few times to see if anything is
> amiss and it starts up normally every time, no errors... I was under the
> impression a hive registry corruption (ie the original config/system
error)
> could only be repaired in a certain way.. would scandisk fix it or would
> that indicate perhaps it wasn't that problem in the first place?
>
> Any idea where I can view a log of the scan to see what it found and
fixed?
> I'm currently back to square one with no idea if it's going to happen
again
> or not. I'll try memtest next, tho I really would like to run powermax
> somehow, but I'm fast losing patience with this machine!!

I'd persevere and get PowerMax running from a boot floppy -
have you tried another disk? If still no-go (maybe a bad floppy drive),
try making a bootable CD and putting powermax on it - to see how:
http://www.bootdisk.com
or make yourself a copy of the "Ultimate boot CD":
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com
which I wouldn't be without.
HTH
--
Rob

"Rob Hemmings" <> wrote in message
news:cqc9rb$qse$...
>
> "rat" <> wrote in message
> news:cqa7b7$rmq$...
>>
>> "Rob Hemmings" <> wrote in message
>> news:cq9ijc$2vu$...
>> >
>> > "rat" <> wrote in message
>> > news:cq8psd$82u$...
>> >> Thanks for the response John and Rob... I realised after I posted that
> I
>> >> hadn't included the HD in the list of things I could test and I will
>> >> probably do that first with the maxtor utility.
>> >>
>> >> The thing that gets me with the whole issue is that I cannot get the
>> > machine
>> >> to go wrong when in my possession. I'm relying on the user's
> description
>> > of
>> >> what happened but it never does it for me!
>> >>
>> >> These things are sent to try us I s'pose...
>> >
>> > If it helps, I had almost the exact same symptoms recently on
>> > a PC I repaired. It was a failing hard disk (Maxtor in this case).
>> > Try running the HD manuf's diagnostic on it from a boot floppy.
>> > HTH
>> > --
>> > Rob
>> >
>>
>> Thanks Rob...
>> Further developments tho.... I downloaded Powermax from maxtor and
> created
>> the floppy boot disk but it just would not load (the fdd just whirs and
>> whirs and clicks), so I tried going into safe mode and that worked.
>> The Event viewer tipped me off that the HD had a bad blockSo I scheduled
>> a
>> scandisk and rebooted. It successfully went into scan mode whereupon I
>> had
>> to go out, leaving it to do its stuff. On my return the desktop is there
>> with everything intact! I've rebooted a few times to see if anything is
>> amiss and it starts up normally every time, no errors... I was under the
>> impression a hive registry corruption (ie the original config/system
> error)
>> could only be repaired in a certain way.. would scandisk fix it or would
>> that indicate perhaps it wasn't that problem in the first place?
>>
>> Any idea where I can view a log of the scan to see what it found and
> fixed?
>> I'm currently back to square one with no idea if it's going to happen
> again
>> or not. I'll try memtest next, tho I really would like to run powermax
>> somehow, but I'm fast losing patience with this machine!!
>
> I'd persevere and get PowerMax running from a boot floppy -
> have you tried another disk? If still no-go (maybe a bad floppy drive),
> try making a bootable CD and putting powermax on it - to see how:
> http://www.bootdisk.com
> or make yourself a copy of the "Ultimate boot CD":
> http://www.ultimatebootcd.com
> which I wouldn't be without.
> HTH
> --


Now that ultimate boot disk has got to be about the most handy thing I've
ever seen. Thanks very much for the link! It's downloading now... and if I
can't sort anything out with that, then I'll pack up and go serve bigmacs!
;-)
Thanks for your time.
Cheers

Andy