New Build Freezing After Boot

[samjwjones]

Hi all, I've built a machine for a friend and am having a bit of a problem. Have a few builds under my belt and never experienced any major issues that I couldn't figure out, so a bit lost.

I am on the 3rd install now as it keeps going wrong. XP installs fine, but when it boots for the first time and I start to install drivers, it takes a little longer than I would expect for the cds to initialise, or for anything I click on to actually start happening. It froze a couple of times during one of the installs I have done. After installing all the drivers and connecting to the net through my router in order to download AVG it froze. Every time I try to boot up now it starts up fine and in good time, but as soon as I attempt to do anything it freezes up again. Initially you can still use the mouse but not actually do anything with the buttons, but after a few seconds you can no longer move the mouse either.

RAM is fine according to Memtest (which works fine on this build - also checked in other working build) and the bios says the CPU is running at 25 degrees C.

System Spec as follows:

OS: XP Pro.
MOBO: Asus A8N-VM CSM
CPU: AMD (Venice) Athlon 64 3500+ 939pin 512Kb L2 Cache 90nm
RAM: 2x Kingston 512MB DDR PC3200 400MHz CL3
HDD: Maxtor DiamondMax10 6V250F0 250GB 7200rpm SATAII 16MB Cache
DVD: Pioneer DVR-111DSV 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer Internal IDE
WIRELESS: Buffalo PCI Card 125mbps High Speed Dt
CASE/PSU: Aspire X-Infinity Silver Midi Tower Gaming Case - with 400W PSU

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

[Foosa]

try and boot with only 1 stick of ram.

what video card do you have?

Can you get your hands on a different psu?

[spartan015]

how long did u test the RAM? just wondering.

and how is the hard drive? have you tried other hard drives for a test?

and did you make sure everything is bolted down and nothing is loose, so like if something bumps it, something won't get loose? I had a similar issue and it was because I had a loose soundcard.

oh didn't notice your psu. I'd swap that out. (as others have said) stock psu's are unstable (in most cases) so yea...
FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX450-PN 450W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104954

[Cricket]

I would replace the existing power supply with a known-to-be-good compatible one just to rule the power supply out.

Cricket

[samjwjones]

RAM is definitely fine. Ran all tests 3x.

The build is for a girl who is never going to need decent gfx for games etc so got a mobo with reasonable on-board gfx.

Will experiment with power supply from my pc tomorrow, but is this really likely to be causing the problems exhibited?

I can test with another HDD if this is likely to have anything to do with it.