Help With Computer

[cpetzol2]

I just found an old HP Pavilion in my basement that hasnt been used in a while. I thought I would set it up for mame, and possibly build a cab for it. I formated the HD and install a fresh copy of XP Pro with Service Pack 2. Worked great as I was setting it up, and when Windows was first on.

I started downloading drivers from the HP site since I lost the CD. I found almost all of the drivers except for one. Then I restarted my computer. When I restarted it, by computer was stuck in 4-bit color depth. I checked out my freshly installed video adapter. It showed "Device was unable to allocate resources do to a memory conflict [code 12]". So my video card doesnt work at all. I called up HP tech support and they gave me drivers for the controllers that were still uninstalled, apparently they were causing the problems.

The first time I restarted my computer after that, things went great. Then I installed some software that required a restart. I restart my computer and I get this. My computer doesnt POST at all. It states at the top...

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Award Medallion BIOS c6.00pg
Copyright Bla Bla

Copy right Hewlett packard
Rev. 3.00 05/13/02

Main Processor : Atj;pm(tm) CP 2000+


(lot of black space, and then at the bottom)

Press F1 to enter SETUP
05/13/02-nVidia-CRUSH1-6A61AM49C

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Pressing F1 does nothing. The computer just sits here, COmpletely frozen. It doesnt even get as far as bitching because no keyboard is attatched.

I detached the power from the wall, let it sit without power for 2 hours, turn it back on, and it works.

Works awesome...until i restart it again. Now, I try my method above again...doesnt work this time. So I unplug it for 8 hours, then try again, still doesnt work, just freezes on the page i typed out above. Thats where I am now. Its just been sitting here. I have tried powering up and then powering down a dozen times with no results.
Anyone have any ideas.

Thankyou.

[shmokes]

Try unplugging it from the wall and then pulling the battery from the motherboard (looks like a big watch battery).  There's also going to be a jumper somewhere on the motherboard that will reset the CMOS settings when you move it over a couple of pins. 

[fredster]

If nothing else, yank out that video card and try again.

Do you have that video card set to the PCI slot or the AG slot in the Bios?  Some of those have a setting for internal, PCI, or the AGP slot.

Try setting it back up with the exact same hardware it had before. Then add your new stuff.

[cpetzol2]

Now, get this.

I unplug my computer overnight. In the morning, just to see, I turn on the computer, and it boots perfectly. All of the drivers were installed correctly, and none of them were conflicting, which is a first so far. I am going home this weekend, and just turned off the computer. I guess I will find out on Monday if this is going to be a continuing problem. Anyone have any ideas what is wrong with this thing.

Thank you.

[AtomSmasher]

Since it crashes during POST, the problem is either with the BIOS or with the hardware itself, the drivers should have nothing to do with it.  Try resetting the bios as mentioned before.  If that doesn't work, then unplug everything from the computer except the mobo, processor, and memory and see if it regularly makes it through POST (it should beep to tell you it made it through POST and assuming you have the internal speaker connected correctly).  If it does, add one piece of hardware and retest it, continue until all hardware is reinstalled.  This should help you narrow down the problem. 

Another thought, it could be a bad power supply that is fluctuating the voltage its sending which could cause the periodic problems.  In my experience power supplies are the most common piece of hardware to fail and a bad power supply can cause all sorts of wierd problems.  To test it, borrow a power supply from a working computer and see if you still have the problems after its installed.