Blue screen keeps popping up, format and reinstall did not fix problem

Question

My wife has a Toshiba Satellite A55-S3063 Laptop with Windows XP Home. After we got married in 2008, I noticed SP2 was installed and there was an update ready. She said SP3 never installed and I couldn't get it to install. Even with Registry checks, removing anti-virus, and other suggestions from the MS site, I still couldn't get it to install. I told her we would do a format and reinstall "someday." A month ago, the blue screen of death started coming on regularly and the computer would restart quickly after flashing the blue screen. I did a System Restore from a previous point, but a few days later, it started happening again. I decided to take this opportunity to do a format and reinstall, so I backed everything up. Her computer came with a recovery disk that only gives you the option to do a format and reinstall, not a recovery like I've done on other computers. So the format was really our only option. I did this and installed all the Service Packs (including 3). I put a new battery in (that we hadn't used before) because the old one didn't last very long and I got a blue screen and restart the next time I turned on the computer. AFter that one time, it worked fine the rest of the day. The next day I plugged in the external hard drive (Simpletech 500gb) to move her info back over. A few minutes later, blue screen and system crash. On restart, same thing. Next restart, just a black screen. I decided no big loss if I reinstall again, so I reinstalled again. Now I just get the blue screen during setup. Right after I type in the computer name and click "Next" I can hear the hard drive spinning and then the blue screen and system restarts. The blue screen is not up long enough to read, so I can't give you an error message. 
I can only assume this a hardware problem, but I don't know what or how to fix it. We have her sister's old computer which is the same computer, bought at the same time, but stopped working years ago. So with explicit instructions, I might be able to retrieve hardware from that. Except the hard disk; her sister kept that and is using it as a small external drive. 

Answer 1

this link should give you some info on how to get it open to everything
A55 disassembly
toshiba doesnt offer any manuals so this is about as good as you will find
hope that helps
-civicman4-
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Post all info about your laptop and version of windows. We are working on it but still do not have the powers to read your mind.