Need help debugging some hardware issues...

[majmera]

Hi Guys,
My system sometimes won't start up at all. It'll just come to the first screen and then just shutdown automatically. Sometimes it'll come up and not detect any IDE drives at all.
If it does start up, then it works fine for weeks without any issues.
I removed everything from the system except 1 module of RAM and the hard drive and CD ROM drive.
I have memtest in the RAM module and it seems fine.
Any ideas on what could be wrong?
My config is as follows:
CPU : Athlon XP 1600
MB: nVidia nForce 420(MSI)
OS: WinXP Pro.
RAM: 256 DDR 2100.

 

[BadThad]

Sounds like something is shorting out. Check that there's no loose screws or metal floating around in there. You may have to remove and reinstall your mainboard to be 100% sure. Make sure each of the posts is where it's supposed to be. If that checks out, pull the wires off the PWRSW on the FP connector area of the mobo, then momentary jumper it with a piece of metal....see if the system starts and runs. It could be a bad PW switch.

 

[Paperlantern]

well it doesnt sound like the system is having any problem starting initially, he said when it DOESNT work it starts but then shuts down automatically. But, BadThad could be right in the sense if its shorting it could be causing it to turn off similar to holding the button back in on a working machine to make it shut down. Try the shorting the jumper to start it route first and let us know what happens, if you get a 100% success rate, then you got a PW switch issue =)

 

[majmera]

Thanks guys for the replies, I haven't been able to reproduce the problem to try out your solution. For now the PC seems to be behaving itself. Maybe something was shorting out and got fixed.