Ok. This is a brand new job. Its got an MSI 6378 motherboard and a Duron 1000 processor and 256MB IBM PC 133 ram. Everything else is onboard. When I first hooked everything, it worked fine. I shut it off because I had forgotten to hook up the cd-rom. I hooked up the cd-rom, and tried to turn it back on. Now, when it tries to start, the power supply tries to start, but goes for about 1 second and then just shuts off. When I take out the processor, the power supply works fine. I tried to change out the power supply, and it did the same thing. Any suggestions other than go buy a new one?

Sounds like something has been dislodged slightly - like the memory.

I thought that something might be loose too, but short of beating on it with a hammer, its in as firm as it gets.

It was working. You hooked up your CD-ROM. Now it doesn’t work. Check the power connection to your CD-ROM. Consider disconnecting it to see if you can get back to where you were. If you have an electrical problem with the CD-ROM, your power supply might shut things down to protect the rest of the system. While you’re at it, check the connections for everything. How big is your power supply any way?

My CD-ROM isnt hooked up at all. In fact, there is nothing hooked up. Just a processor and ram hooked to the power supply. I thought if I unhooked everything and then checked it, I could see which part was messing up, but still nothing. There arent any connections that are loose that I can see. Its only a 250, but it should run it all without any problem. Its on AMD's compatibility list even.

Jamie Pierce: 250 watts is kind of low but should be adequate for what you’re doing right now, getting things to work. After what you describe above, I wonder if you stressed the MOBO when you “hooked up” the CD-ROM and now have a short in its circuitry. That thing about the power supply going on for a short period then shutting itself off sounds like a “protective response”. You also mentioned that this was a new MOBO and, believe it or not, quality control at MSI (and ASUS, Gigabyte, Tyan, etc) is less than 100%. That may be the silver lining. The vendor of a newly purchased MOBO will most likely stand behind their sale and perhaps swap you for a new board. If not, you’re only out $56-78 (Price Watch) to get a new one. I am working through a similar experience with a computer I built about 2 weeks ago. I had it up and running well but the processor was running too hot for me (60 C) so I pulled off the Vulcano 7 and replaced the heat sink “tape” with good old thermal paste. Since then, all I can get when I power it up is all the lights and fans and 3 short beeps. I’ve tried everything I can think of to try (including totally taking it all apart down to an empty case and rebuilding it!) to get it back to where I was before but every time I power it up, I get 3 short beeps. I finally called the place where I bought it to buy a replacement MOBO and they told me that they thought that maybe it was a defective MOBO too and offered to send me a new one pronto. Badboy

Hi Guys I have a big problem. I was playing around with the bios in my sisters new 950 celeron. And I set the settings to optimal for almost everything. Now All I get is a blank screen. The cd rom works the green light goes on but no hard drive activity. Can u guys tell me what I screwed up? PLS HELP She just bought the computer 2 weeks ago