Thanks for the well-wishes, Richard. And the story :)

Richard Urban wrote:[color=blue]
> It could be that you have a combination of 2, or more, problems creating
> your condition. Good luck finding the solution to that.
>
> Five years ago I was building a new computer for my eldest son. I
> purchased all new parts. I could not load "any" operating system on the
> computer. I started with Windows XP and eventually went all the way back
> to DOS.
>
> So, knowing that bad RAM can cause this problem I took the known good
> RAM from my computer and placed it in my sons computer. DOS then loaded
> (I wanted a fast test). I then went to install XP and it was a no show.
>
> Just for grins I took the CPU from my computer and put it in his new
> (identical) M/B. Windows XP was able to load.
>
> Now, the strange thing was that after loading Windows XP on this new
> computer, I could swap back in the old (new) CPU and the computer would
> boot, and run, almost perfect. It was just very slow (about 10 minutes
> to boot up the ****ed thing.
>
>
> I checked the hardware using Everest HOME Edition and immediately saw
> that there was no L1 cache on the new CPU. Yep, the new CPU was ALSO
> defective. All manufacturers made good on their merchandise and I
> eventually gave my son his belated birthday present.
>
>[/color]