Let's see someone figure this one out... :-) I've built about 30 or 40 computers. One of my friends who owns one of these tells me that his computer refuses to turn on anymore. At this point in time it was running a Thunderbird 650 on top some old Biostar MB with SDRAM memory. I take a look at it, and sure enough, the power comes on for a moment, and then everything shuts down. I pulled out my trusty multimeter and checked the leads coming off the PSU; they were all fine. His room is usually too hot, so I assumed that something got fried. Since the parts were so old, I had him get the processor, MB, and RAM listed above (XP 2600, MSI KT4V KT400 chipset, 1 gig of PNY PC3200 RAM). I put in the new parts, everything turned on, reinstalled the OS, everything seemed okay. Until a month later when the same problem occurred. Now, I took a closer look at everything, and I couldn't figure out what was wrong. When I put his computer back together last time, I watched the CPU temp over the course of several hours and it never went above 55 C. That is not near enough to smoke an Athlon, and the processor didn't smell smoked either. My next thought was the power line coming in had become dirty with power fluxuations. I tested the line and it held constant at 121.5 V, so no problem there. I thought perhaps the power supply was misbehaving when it was under load (I don't have the necessary equipment and knowledge to test it when it is being used) so we got him a new Antec case and PSU rated to 300W which should be enough for his non-overclocked, no-extra-peripherals system. We also got a replacement motherboard since the 30 day return policy on it was not completely up. I installed the cpu/heatsink/fan, new MB, and memory into the new case. Nothing else was installed (nothing else is needed for a post, I should get a status beep telling me that there is a video problem if all goes right with this setup). Still, I got nothing. With a new PSU and new MB at the same time, I got the same problem of power coming on for a second, then everything shutting off. The only thing I saw in common was the memory and the CPU. So I replaced the CPU, and STILL THE SAME PROBLEM. The only thing in left in common is the RAM, and I have never seen RAM keep a MB from turning on...it just gives the appropriate beep code during post. So here is what I am asking: 1) Has anyone ever seen a faulty or burnt out processor ruin a new motherboard that it was placed into? This could explain why the current motherboard does not work. 2) Has anyone ever seen RAM force a machine to completely power down (ALL fans including the one in the PSU turn off) I don't want to go buy new RAM unless this is a known problem. 3) Has anyone ever seen this behavior before? I have already read all the other posts here on this subject, and none of them apply. Everything has been reseated several times, and I used copper mounting posts to put the MB in the case. Yes, I have tried clearing the CMOS. I have tried using different parts of the RAM. I have not taken apart another one of my computers and testing the parts in it simply because I do not have an AMD system to spare right now, and I am hesitant about introducing some unknown mystery problem that could fry anything/everything in a good computer. So please do not suggest any of these suggestions unless you have a good reason to suspect I overlooked something. Thanks a lot to whomever solves this one :-) Brian

I had a similar problem and was running an athlon 1.5G I also observed the temperature over the course of several hours mine was in the same range between 55-60C. It was'nt faulty of course the only thing i did was replace the cpu fan and add additional thermal paste to the processor and underneath of the new fan, not too much as to choke it. I had similar symptoms to what you were having. I had other minor problems, like faulty HDD's on top of that, broken pins etc. this also slowed it down. And fare enough the cpu fans maybe new but they may also not be good enough. Now the processor temp. is down to about 38C+ and i rarely have lock up's or shutdown's. I'd say the reason the pc shut's down is prob to do with a safety mechanism of the mobo, mine does it too. It shut's down the pc if the temp gets too high without you noticing the temp rise especially on bootup. Just a thought.

Had similar problem with friends Dell. Hit the power button and nothing. We replaced power supplies..got a high pitched whine, indicating a short..ended up buying a new computer with new PSU and case. When we build his PC, it sometimes booted or sometimes gave us long beeps and wouldn't work unless we turned of PSU power for at least 15sec..after banging our heads, I plugged in an optional diagnostic module and told us the DDR he bought an hour earlier was bad! BUT funny thing was, all drives initialized, fans kicked in, everything seemed to work except for post and long beeping. CompUSA may have a memory tester, cost me $25 a couple years ago, you may try that..in fact you can probably run that DDR into any computer shop and have them plug it into a system to test it.

I didn't know that there were handheld devices for testing memory... I'll have to check one of those out if they are as cheap as you say. In the meantime... thanks for all the suggestions and keep on writing if you think of anything more.

Oh... and as for the CPU fans. It originally had the fan that AMD bundled with the processor, but then I tried switching that for some humungous copper-core Coolermaster heatsink with a 80mm fan. There is also a case fan right next to the processor. None of it matters much though because the power does not come on long enough for any of the fans to make more than 2 or 3 rotations. Remember, I put in a new processor since the machine stopped working, and the machine has never stayed powered on long enough for the processor to get above room temperature, so I don't think a auto-cpu-shutoff switch is to blame, unless a burnt out processor permanently sets that switch. Thanks for the advice though and keep it coming please!

Now listen to my story:) Dell XPS b733 P3 733mhz 256 rd-ram pc-600 Geforce2 64 DDR tv-in-out-svideo. Sound blaster live 3Com ethernet card 180wats PSU (not enough but still worked) I have or had a dell system and once i pushed the button and fans went on and leds aswell. BUT NO BEEPS system doesnot boot up. So i unpluged all cards except video card but still NOTHING. Then i unpluged ram and video card and then i got long beeps. I tryed to use different PSU but still nothing. (IMPORTANT) Eventually i bought a new case with 350 wats and new mobo, one stick 256 ddr 2700. I put everything together and i got P3 733mhz 256 DDR pc-2700 Geforce2 64 DDR tv-in-out-svideo. Sound blaster live 3Com ethernet card 350wats PSU I pushed power button and got no beeeps !!! I was angry :( Then i thought i put ram wrong side and i put other way. I got continious beeps. Then i put ram as it was before and i turn it on and i got a SMOKE FROM A mobo. I went to the store and they said i put ram wrong side but they still replaced mobo:) I came home installed new mobo and turn it on and i got long contious beeps. I off pc. I tryed again and it worked but the fans didnot go so aswell as leds. It boot up to bios but tempereture was 100C without fans so i turned it off immidiately and exchange the mobo again. Now i have my 3rd new mobo :) and it works fine on 60 C at full load (P3 733mhz) The thing is the problem with my dell COmputer war bad ram. I took a stick from other computer and it worked. P.S. My Tempereture record is 120C. Unbelivable but true. It was for 3 minutes without fan and heatsink. That Processor is still alive! Good Luck

"I didn't know that there were handheld devices for testing memory... I'll have to check one of those out if they are as cheap as you say." Sorry, i implied CompUSA sells a tester..correction..I paid them $25 to test memory for me. Since I had no other option at the time and memory was expensive (imagine that) this was my best option. They may have just put it into a rigged testing PC and ran a quick test on it BTW-Handheld testers are $100+