Computer hanging on cold boot

[Daroo]

I've been having this annoying problem and I hope some of you can help me with. My rig (listed below) started to freeze during various stage of power on... most of the time at the scrolling window start up screen or the welcome screen. If I reset the system, it would boot to window and is rock stable after that.

I don't overclock. Heat is acceptable according to mbm, beside its a problem only at startup.
I checked my rams with memtest and prime95 which can run for hours without error.
I reformat and reinstall xp pro sp1a and the problem persist.
I chkdsk and ran powermax (maxtor diagnoistic) and everything reported as fine.

Is it a power supply problem or motherboard problem or harddrive?

AMD 2600 barton
asus a7n8x deluxe v 1.4
corsair value ram 512mb x2
geforce 4 ti4200
maxtor 160mb, 8mb cache
pioneer dvd drive
liteon 52x cdrw
antech trupower 330w
lian li pc60 aluminum case

Thanks for the help in advance

 

[Lord Evermore]

Easiest and cheapest to test is the power supply, just swap it out. Borrow a friend's or something if needed. Next would be the video card, although if you have a spare one of any type you might try that as the first thing, except boot into safe mode so Windows doesn't try to change your video drivers.

 

[imported_Phil]

Agreed. Lastly, check for leaking or bulging capacitors on the motherboard.

 

[Lord Evermore]

I've had to replace two mainboards in IBM machines (out of the two machines in the office) at a customer's site because of those stupid capacitors.

 

[Daroo]

Quick update, all issues resolved after putting in a new 550W TTGI superflower power supply bought on the hot deals forum.

Thanks all

 

[mechBgon]

If you had the power supply's blue & black RPM-sensing wire plugged into the motherboard, that was probably the problem. A7N8X's can be 😕 by low-RPM fans.