My computer won't even begin to boot up. When I turn it on, the power/HDD LEDs flash for a split-second, and the fans spin up for a split second, but then they stop. There is no more activity. The power button doesnt work again until I unplug and plug the mains again. I am running this on a bare-bones setup: motherboard (MSI MS-6775), CPU (Athlon XP 3000+ 333FSB), RAM (512MB PC2700) and gfx (Radeon 9200SE 256MB). Sometimes the computer does turn on, but doesn't get past the POST stage - there are no beeps and no graphical output. I have read countless amounts of posts about the POST not happening, but they don't help me in that they never mention the computer not even turning on, like my problem. I have done everything they suggest, such as trying a different gfx card and reseating the RAM, but I don't have a spare motherboard or CPU to try and rule them out. It could also be the PSU but the motherboard and cards do get power so I don't know. What could cause the PC to act like this? If it was a component problem, wouldn't the PC still turn on and fail at the POST stage? This leads me to believe that there is a problem with the motherboard or the PSU. Does anyone have any experience of this?

According to my experience,it might be invloved in three faulty issues, 1)faulty Motherboard, 2)bad CPU or 3)bad power supply You need contact with the Mobo company pretty soon. GoodLuck! Masud

You need to try with a known good powersupply first. If it still will not post then you have narrowed it to motherboard, cpu,ram or graphics. or a combination of these. I had a system suffer a meltdown and the only thing that survived of these basic components was the ram. In other cases it could be something as simple as the heatsink fan having failed. On some boards if the HSF fails then the board prevents POST to protect the CPU from thermal overload. You have several options: 1. take it to a tech to have the components tested to work out what has failed. 2. Test each component in another compatible working system to determine for yourself which has failed. 3. Buy replacement bits until you get it to work. I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.

If I buy a new motherboard or processor, will I have to reinstall windows? I would rather not...

You might get by without a reinstall, but I would NEVER do that unless it is an IDENTICAL motherboard. So many things are set up when Windows loads. You can avoid many of these Windows problems with Linux. Linspire eases the transition for new users

I have a very similar pc as you have, ie same m/b, cpu, ram etc I also had exactly the same problem as you described, to the letter. It turned out that it was the psu that was faulty, because i got so fed up with trying to start it, that when it did boot up i decided to leave it on 24/7, this turned out to be a bad move for the psu because it went bang one evening. So i went out and got another one, plugged it in hit the switch and hey presto it fired up without any probs.I hope this has been of some use to you. Cheers Eric.

I have similar symptoms on my IBM, the computer will spin up the cpu fan for 1 second, and then shut off. The only difference with mine is that the LED's don't stay on. I have tested the powersupply, ram , cpu, and all the drives in a spare computer, and they all work. It seems that it is down to the motherboard, but I am still wondering: if the motherboard was actually dead, then why would the fan still spin up even for a few seconds? I can't see anything shorting it out... maybe i'll just assume that its dead.