Can Windows XP Damage your PC?

[richdgrant]

I recently installed XP only to discover that wenever I tried to play a game it crashed the PC. After a couple of days trying to fix this, I decided to restore my system to Windows ME only to find that the problem was still hapening even-though I had formatted the harddrive and zapped the drive so that it hot rid of any partitions that XP may have created. The problem was still hapening so I took my PC to my retailer, TINY, only to discover that my motherboard was damaged. I have my PC back now and it's got Windows ME on it, I was thinking of putting XP back on but am a little worried in case it causes this problem to happen again. Could any one tell me if they know if Installing XP, (choosing 'upgrade' as the install option) could damage a computer in this way? Do you think it could have just been a coincidence that the motherboard 'packed in' the same time that I intstalled XP?

Also, when XP was on my machine, it displayed on the screen a 'Hardware Report' which listed any hardware that wouldn't work. The only thing that was listed was my modem. So when I decided to connect to the net I couldn't install a default 56k modem on XP cos my modem is connected to Communication port 3 but I only gave me the choice of communication port 1 & 2. Does windows XP support a third communications port? If not is there any way of adding on to it? Because if not then I'd have to buy an external modem to connect to either com port 1 or 2.

Thanks for any replies I get.

Rich.

[Andy-S]

XP cannot cause any physical damage to your motherboard. It was just a coincidence that your motherboard became faulty when you installed XP.

On your modem settings most PCI modems default to COM 3 on installation. You should have no problems installing an internal modem with XP if the modem is on the hardware compatibility list.

[richdgrant]

The thing is that when XP displayed a list of 'incompatible hardware', my modem was listed. Does this mean that I would have to get a compatible modem? or just download different drivers?

[RWSchlatter]

Recheck at <a target="_blank" href=http://www.microsoft.com/hcl/>http://www.microsoft.com/hcl/</a>, search for Modem (probably you will want the "analog" subset). The final release may have additional support. Anyhow before buying new hardware check the manufacturers site for new drivers. Installing the driver should set up you the extra com port you are missing. If you don't see a driver for XP try using a Win2K driver.

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Regards - Richard

[AlexeyGubin]

Actually, I have a similar problem.
I have an ABIT BP6 mobo, in which 66MHz 32Mb DIMM was installed (3-4 years old chip). Other DIMMs were also installed, but they were PC133. The whole system was overclocked to 83MHz FSB instead of 66MHz. Voltage on DIMMs was increased - because of some oddity with power - it always supplies additional 0.3V to DIMMs, with reason for it being unknown.

When I tried to install WinXP, it plainly fryed that old chip. I believe that there were some intensive memory access to that DIMM, and it finally overheated and died.

But, with my setup, I must say that I was plainly asking for trouble, with Windows XP or not.

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Wbr, Alex
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[captainkirk]

YOU MAY DISCOVER RARE HARD DRIVE CONTROLLER FAILURES, YOUR HARD DRIVE REFUSES TO CONVERT TO NTFS BUT WORKD ON FAT 32 FINE. IN ADDITION, IF YOU REMOVE A DRIVE FROM AN XP MACHINE, USE THE XP CD PARTITION UTILITY TO CONVERT THE DRIVE BACK TO FAT 32 BEFORE YOU INSTALL IT IN ANOTHER MACHINE, ELSE YOU NEED A WIN98 FLOPPY TO DO IT LATER.