Computer's broken, but not really?

[sensazn]

Good afternoon everybody.

First and foremost, I would like to thank everyone who gives my thread a read. I truly appreciate it.

AMD-1700+ Palomino
MSI-KT3 Ultra 6380, Bios 5.7
768 DDR RAM
9800 Pro
120GB WD Caviar SE (8mb cache)
CoolerMaster 450W PSU

Ok, here?s the problem.

Tuesday night I was using my computer as usual, chatting on msn and listening to music when it suddenly restarts.
It boots up again, I choose my user profile, it begins to load windows but then it restarts again.
This time, it locks up before window xp boots up. (You know before the XP progress bar starts moving)
So I press the restart button, this time I don?t see anything on my screen. Not even the screen with the Award Logo and it shows your CPU specs. At this level, my monitor light flashes (its as if a computer is NOT on, but my computer is)
*note this all happened in about 4 minutes*
I try restarting a couple more times, no matter what I cant seem to even seen Award logo screen.

First I thought my Mobo might be a little out of wack. So I take out the battery from the motherboard, kept it out for a while, put it back in. Same problem.

Second: Maybe my RAM fried or something, so I rotated my 2 sticks ALL around (8 different combinations)

Third, I thought it was a virus of some sort, because it caused my windows to restart by itself twice. I set it as slave, and used my sisters computer to virus scan.
I used a couple scanners, and all of them came up empty handed. I also went through a ScanDisk, and a Defrag while I was still connected to my computer.

The next day after work, I came home and tried to use my harddrive as the Master in my sisters computer.
Same thing, I cant see the screen with the Award Logo, and CPU specs.

It works fine as a Slave for some reason, but once its set as master, it doesn?t seem to want to start.
I currently have it set it to slave, and spent most of last night burning DVD backups of my important files.



I was thinking of finishing backing up my files, leaving it connected as slave, and trying to repair XP using the XP disk. (Can I repair a drive on a secondary harddrive from the XP repair menu?)
Last choice I guess would be to reformat, but I really don?t understand how a corrupted windows would prevent me from even accessing windows.


Now the question is: What could be the problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you once again for your time.

 

[BadThad]

1) Look over the mainboard for any bulging or leaking capacitors.
2) Reseat everything connected to the mobo, don't just see if it's tight, remove and replace.
3) Make sure ALL your fans are spinning at full speed, especially the power supply and cpu fans.

No luck? ....I thinking the power supply went bad on you.

 

[Fern]

no matter what I cant seem to even seen Award logo screen.

Try booting your PC w/o the HDD connected. You should still be able to get into AWARD BIOS and POST screen.

It works fine as a Slave for some reason, but once its set as master, it doesn?t seem to want to start.

Not sure I'm following this, but slave or master setting doesn't matter as far booting into Windows. My HDD's are set to slave with my opticals set to master. It's a cabling issue for me. So leave it as slave if it works as you say and try to boot up with it. Depending on the rest of your compnents, may have to adjust boot sequence in BIOS.

I'd run a drive fitness proggie on it (d/l for free from manufacturer). Bad PSU or ram (run Memtest86 on it) could've crapped up your install too.

Fern

 

[sensazn]

Thank you for the replies.

BadThad:
1) checked for those, nothing
2) reseated everything, removed + replaced
3) all fans are seem like they are spinning at full speed

Fern:
1) I tried booting without a HDD connected. I couldnt get the AMI Bios/Post screen


Thanks again

 

[illusion88]

The first thing I thought was a bad PSU. If you ahve the money, go out and buy a new one. Make sure you can return it if it doesn't work. Also, try reformating/reinstalling while on the new PSU. That might get you going.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: sensazn

Fern:
1) I tried booting without a HDD connected. I couldnt get the AMI Bios/Post screen


Thanks again

You don't have any add-in cards you're not listing, do you? If you've got any PCI cards in there, take them out when you unhook the HDD and try to boot to BIOS etc.

Otherwise if it's not the PSU (might as well check) sounds like the board is dorked.

Hopefully just the PSU.

Fern