Solved Vista Home Premium Start up / shut down loop

Question

Ta Da    The  C:\windows\winsxs      ETC.       that was my solution  found it on this site and other sites and decided to try it:
It was actually the 3rd choice of solutions on that particular page  and  I could not complete the solution as directed because the files I was supposed to delete were not there, funnily enough that is why I chose that solution as I really did not believe it was an update error but may provide me with a    "Look Inside" .  So I followed along and it would not let me delete the file as instructed but it let me rename it   I did rename 1 file and rebooted. Everything proceeded as normal but it actually finished loading the NVidia driver for onboard graphics  ( which was where it was crashing ) and that was it.
 I still dont know for sure why it would not load the driver and  I never did get any blue screens or failed update messages or error codes. On the upside I now have a working repair disk that I didnt have before, and created a backup that I didnt do before 
I have an HP Pavilion  m 7580n   ( Media Center) that is locked in a start up shut down loop.
It starts normally and runs up normally until the desktop flashes on the screen for about 3 seconds. At this point It is still loading things like the Internet connection , Icon indicates connected, nvidia control panel icon. It never gets any further than that.....?
if I am  fast enough to dbl click an icon it will load whatever the icon represents but will immediately flash to the "Shutting down" screen. It then shuts down and auto starts the loop again. 
I have  also tried   ctrl / alt / del   and I get there but it crashes instantly.
 The machine is now running   Vista Home Premium.  Upgraded from XP by an online download so I have no OEM disk.
I dont know if it is 32 or 64 bit I would guess 32 as it was an XP upgrade
What I have tried so far
I have ruled out ANY Hardware problems by swapping hard drives and loading a different OS.   Win 7 on it and everything works fine for hours.  Benchmarks, stress tests, temp tests, games, mem tests
I have made a vista repair disk and tried all of the "Non Destructive" options  available.
I have tried every safe mode option.
I have hooked the problem hard drive to another computer and accessed it that way, and ran virus scanners
and clean and repair programs. No Bad sectors, clusters, nothing bad
I have removed all "Junk" and files I can replace
I have striped all unnecessary hardware. swapped RAM, Vid Cards  ETC.
I have tried all of the above both connected and not connected to the Internet and everything many times and many differant combinations.
Nothing has made any difference at all
A little history of the machine.
It was bought second hand with the Vista Installed and came with a paper  sticker with a hologram
 and a Key That was apparently mailed after the online update ?
It was activated and displayed windows genuine logo in System Folder
It received updates automatically and by request no problems.
 I mention this only because I cannot be absolute certain it is a legal copy and was wondering if this is some sort of disabling of pirated software or an expired demo?
It was used in a cottage  where it could possibly of had a power failure during an auto update. I mention this as some update problems resemble my problem. I have shied away from trying those fixes as they involve elevated commands and such and my knowledge in that area is very limited. and I dont have any of the stages loading screens 
It would be easy for me to format and reload an OS But the files I want are protected and I cant access them from another computer.
I havent Listed any Hardware as I am satisfied it is not a hardware issue  However it is the  AMD X 2 64 version
 Any Non hardware related suggestions would be appreciated as I am certain this hardware all works
I get no BSOD's no errors.
 Thanks for reading my lament

Answer 1

Quote
Do this, and while it is in the open re-examine your cpu pins w/ a bight light and hd zoom or a magnifying glass.
Thanks, xmad, I'll look at th CPU again tomorrow/next day under the glass when I take the board out.  I already checked them under magnification and was leaning toward a funky board, but it never hurts to re-check.  Eyesight is not what it used to be, for sure (I miss DOS, if that's a clue...).  Don't want to flash the BIOS if not necessary, since it runs Windows fine and everything works except that RAM.
Bernhard, I don't have CPU-Z installed on that machine and don't want to install anything else until it's working normally.  I'd never seen Click-Bios before and just need to get over my initial suspicion of something new!  Also learn my way around it before I change anything.  I'd never encountered a board reporting a bios different than printed on it.  I've never messed with manual memory settings or done more overclocking than just a little exploratory and suprisingly successful nudge - if you could point me toward a  good basic explaination of all those settings, I could learn from there.
Appreciate your input very much.   
Have learned a lot just reading the threads here for the last few days.  This is the best forum I've ever encountered.  I'll report back - some suggestions in other posts resembling my problem ended with no resolution, and that's a shame because one doesn't know if it worked or not.