Really strange booting problem... Please help!!

[secretwolf]

Hi there, I'm having a really odd problem and hope someone will be able to help me.

I know a bit about computers, I built my computer and it ran fine for months, up until recently, when out of nowhere things started going awry.

Basically, sometimes, not every time, I boot up my computer I will switch it on and it doesn't boot. The CPU fan spins, the motherboard lights go on, the psu fan spins but the motherboard doesn't post and nothing displays on screen. It just sits there apparently doing nothing, I have to reset it.

The odd thing is that it sometimes happens, and sometimes the comp boots up just fine, goes into windows with no worries. It never crashes or has anything go wrong once its started, sometimes it just doesn't boot.

In between the times it works and it doesn't, I haven't put in or removed anything or changed anything full stop.

A friend of mine suggested that it might be the power at the place I am living at, but this actually started happening whilst I was living at a completely seperate address. He also suggested that a UPS might help me.

I'm very careful in terms of viruses etc so I doubt it could be anything like that. Plus I've virus scanned plenty of times.

Anyway, please get back to me and help!!! I need a reliable computer and don't want to replace or buy more parts unless I have to.

Thank you!

Jared

Computer specs:
CPU: Athlon XP 3200+
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-7NNXP
Ram: 2 x 512 Dual Channel DDR
Graphics: Ati Radeon 9800 Pro
HDD: 2 x SATA 200gb raid striped
PSU: AcBel 400W
Optical: DVD-RW, 3.5 inch floppy
Sound card: Creative Soundblaster Live! 5.1

[secretwolf]

Oh, and I'm running Windows XP pro, if it matters.

Thank you!

[Fed]

It just sits there apparently doing nothing, I have to reset it.

You would have to suspect the PSU first.

[IT-Guy]

My suggestion is that if you get power to the motherboard.. ie. all the lights come and the CPU fan spins up.. I would try reseating the memory modules and /or replacing and testing with known good.  It sounds like memory to me... Possible on the verge of going bad.

[secretwolf]

Wow you guys are fast!!

Fed, how do i go about suspecting my PSU? Please explain. Thank you.

IT-Guy, I will try with different memory and get back to you. Thank you.

[Fed]

The way to suspect it is with a frown on your face while saying. "Are you faulty".  
If you get to that point the quickest & easiest way to test it is to swap it out.

[secretwolf]

Ha ha ha that sounds pretty technical. I was planning on doing that if it wasn't an obvious problem. Only problem is getting a decent powerful-enough psu.

I've tried reseating the memory to no avail, it still isn't consistently working. I'm going to borrow some ram off a friend and try with that.

One thing I was wondering about was, do I have enough power? Is 400W enough for the system? Is it possible that it isn't getting consistent reliable power?

[Fed]

If your PSU is on the edge with size or quality then you may get it to boot consistantly by reducing some of the load on it.
Can you replace your video card with a crappy pci card to see if that improves its starting up?

[secretwolf]

Not likely, don't even know who would have something that old. Only option would be a smaller older AGP graphics card. I think one of my mates has a GeForce 4 MX440, the crappest card in existence. It doesn't have an onboard fan or anything like mine does. I'll give that a whirl.

If it is the PSU, can you please recommend a few that would be good for my system? I'm in New Zealand so I may not be able to get them as easily as you can.

Have got some ram, will try it when I get home.

Thank you!!

[secretwolf]

Have tried with working ram, to no success. Will try PSU.

[Backdated]

Disconnect the CDs, modem, soundcard etc (Any extraneous devices that draw current) and try a few boots. Don't boot to Windows, enter the BIOS. All we want to know is whether it POSTS successfully or not.
If it POSTS successfully every time, then it's likely that you do in fact need a higher powered PSU. Your present PSU is good as far as go/nogo is concerned, but as has been said, it may well be "on the edge" as far as capacity is concerned. With that setup, you may just be asking a little too much of a nominal 400 watt supply.