BleepingComputer.com: XP fresh install reboots during setup

I am working on a Compaq Presario SR1403wm desktop running Windows XP Home. 120gb Seagate Pata HD, 512MB ram. The HD crashed(this is a replacement). I boot to the cd drive and Windows starts copying files and drivers. Then the notation comes up that setup is starting windows. In about 3 seconds, it reboots. This has happened 6 times. This is what I have done:
Ran Memtest for 1 hr - no problems
swapped out the optical drive - same results
used another OE xp cd - same results
ran Seagate Seatools diagnostic short scan- no problems
remove cmos battery and reinstalled after 30 minutes
ran a cpu and motherboard diagnostic test - no problems shown
I went into bios and disabled the floppy since it doesn't have one and then changed it back to the defaults.
Any other suggestions? Thanks very much.

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Hi geno -
I think that if you mean Memtest86, it needs to run for more than 1 hour, even if it only has 1 small stick of RAM.
Normally I would run this for about 8 hours or so -

"""ran Seagate Seatools diagnostic short scan- no problems"""
Also I think the long test would be better if you are looking for problems.

Just my opinion on it -
Regards -

This post has been edited by noknojon: 09 November 2011 - 08:35 PM

Just a word from experience , I`ve had several compaq computers go into continuous reboot and my advice to you is simply strip all useable parts and junk it.After the fourth or fifth one the above advice became my way of "fixing" it . I am not a tech guy but i believe a motherboard component failure is responsible . And they ran perfect until the reboot thing and I never found a fix { and i tried everything } So remember this post in the days ahead amd i truly hope you have better luck than i ?

This post has been edited by kbit: 10 November 2011 - 02:58 AM

Thanks for the responses...I am wondering if a bios flash may be in order..or is there a fixmbr possibility?

I will re-run the 2 tests and reply...