I had a similar issue with my daughter's PC a couple of years ago. All components were her original that had worked for a year or more except for the CPU. I purchased the CPU used (it was an upgrade). It appeared to work just fine except that XP would bomb out after about 30 minutes into the install. ...and I tried to install it at least 5 times. I couldn't figure it out and swapped out everything except the CPU for the longest.

I then put her old CPU back in and XP installed just fine. Fortunately, I got my money back for the used CPU and purchased her a new one - which has worked just fine since.

I couldn't tell you what the problem was, but the only thing that fixed it was a different CPU.

I have had similar issues with bad HDDs as well.

Any more, I figure it could be anything that causes the problem. Swapping components seems the best way to find the culprit.

I hope you find your cause soon.

Priscilla L.