When the computer boots, it somtimes hangs just before doing the memory checks. It never hangs during the first boot after switch on. It can be made to boot following a hang, by switching off at the socket, and then hold the power button in for a few seconds. The PC has an AMD Athlon 4000+ CPU 2 GBytes of memory A MSI RS480Z2 mother board An ATI X700 series graphics card Two 250 GByte SATA drives Can anyone out there help Thanks in advance.

Normally a clue of an ESD damaged device or possibly a power supply issue. I might consider removing any pci cards and the minimum ram. Set bios settings to fail safe or default if option. Then run a diag suite. Could start with memory tests. If runs then try the machine like that. If works then add in boards and memory. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10