Hi-

I've got a bizarre problem with my machine. ( Windows XP Pro, Celeron of some sort, 512k ram, Asus Motherboard.)

Several weeks ago, it started throwing up "windows has encountered an error" messages whike I was playing music in itunes. OK, I thought, iTunes is broken, so I reinstalled. Problem continued. Cunningly, I then moved all files that I valued onto the secondary harddrive.

After a couple of days, the machine crashed on startup, saying some files were missing or corrupt from system32. Ok, I thought, let me re-install.

Re-installed Windows XP, and then it would not allow me to install SP1 or SP2- both ( downloaded and burnt to CD, working elsewhere ) would not extract- I got a message saying the file was corrupt.

Ok, I thought, bad installation. So I repartioned and formatted the HD, and installed windows again. Once again, could not install SP1 and 2, so I decided to try the free MSDE sql installer. Once again, "the file is corrupt'

OK, I thought, bad hard-drive. So I removed the primary drive and installed onto the secondary. Same problem.

Alright- flash the BIOS. No luck.

All my software, from 7zip to Flash, all are in compressed or self-extracting compressed files. Now my machine cant unpack these, and so cannot install anything.

So here is the challenge: what should I attempt next, and as the symptoms point to a hardware problem not a software problem, how would I know how to test?