I'm trying to help an aquaintance by fixing her PC. Please read carefully: When I turn on the computer, the CPU fan whirs very fast at first then slows down to a normal pace after a second. Sometimes it does this repeatedly (up to about 6 times), which i guess is it restarting itself over and over. After the whir(s), nothing happens, most of the time. It doesn't load windows, it doesn't show the splash screen, I don't even think it's POSTing. Nothing comes on the monitor at all, so all I can do is turn it off and try again. Sometimes though (about 1 in every 30 attempts), it works, and gets to the screen asking how I want to load windows - safe mode, safe mode with networking, etc. I've tried choosing to start normally, I've chosen "last known good configuration", and tried safe mode too, but they all freeze before loading windows. The one time I tried "safe mode with networking", it actually worked, but I think that was a fluke, like how 1 in every 30 times it gets to that startup menu. Also, when it loaded windows that time, the CPU fan sped up and stayed spinning at a high rate (too high) until I shut it back down. I've tried replacing the RAM, removing everything from the PCI/AGP slots (the graphics card is integrated), changing monitors, and trying it without keyboard/mouse. I did a system restore, which accomplished nothing, and tried to use the Win XP CD to fix it, but it freezes while loading it. Any ideas on how to proceed would be appreciated, thank you.

Try a new PSU Try resetting the CPU- the thermal paste could be "old" Bio Star 2 gig RAM OCZ, AMD 64 3400 Athlon Thermaltak SVKing Case XFX 7600 GT Zalman CNP Heatsink 500W Antec TruPower

Were any changes to the computer made just before this happened? E.g. did someone install ram in the mboard that hasn't been in it before, or flash the bios, or install a hard drive that already had Windows installed on it on another computer? A friend of mine has a computer in the same series as yours. The cpu fan spinning faster at first when you first boot or when you restart the computer, then slowing down, is a bios feature setting default of the mboard, and that is normal, but no, it should not do that over and over, unless it is attempting to restart multiple times. Otherwise, the cpu fan isn't supposed to spin full speed all the time unless the cpu is above a certain temperature, or unless default bios settings to do with that have been changed. It is extremely unlikely there is anything wrong with the ram. Remove the power to the case, put the ram back in it that was in it originally. Make certain in is in the slot(s) the right way and the latches at the ends of the slots are against the ends of the module(s) before you restore the power and attempt to boot. Trying the ram in another mboard, or trying other ram in this mboard, will not necessarily work - the ram has to be compatible with the mboard. See response 5 in this for some info about ram compatibilty: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... Failing power supplies are common and can cause your symptoms. Check the PS. See response 4 in this: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... Check the hard drive. See the latter part of response 1 in this: http://www.computing.net/windows95/... If you don't have a floppy drive, you can get a CD image diagnostic utility from most hard drive manufacturer's web sites, but obviously you would need to make a burned CD, preferably a CD-R for best compatibilty, on another computer.

Octopus - I was hoping not to diagnose the problem without spending much (if any) money, but thank you for recommending the power supply as a source of the problem, it does seem likely. As for the CPU, I don't think overheating is the problem, as the errors occur before the CPU has build up heat, and the heatsink seems to be conducting the heat fine. Tubesandwires - I don't think any hardware changes were made, as this person is not very computer literate, but I will inquire. I was able to load windows normally, since then, and the fan spun normally that time, so the safe mode thing might have been a fluke. I know about RAM compatibility, and have already replaced the original RAM. I knew it was unlikely, but had to give it a shot. The power supply seems like it might be a good bet, but it's confusing that it never freezes or has other problems once windows actually loads (other than that fan thing, that one time). I don't see how it could be the hard drive's problem if it freezes so early in the boot process, and since when windows actually loads, it runs fine. But I will try that diagnostic tool thing, thanks. I appreciate both your responses, and if you, or anyone else has any more ideas, I'd appreciate them too.

If you're leery about taking the risk of buying another power supply and it possibly not helping, temporarily try the PS with another computer, or try a known good PS with her computer. Note the info about the wiring of the main connector in the post I pointed to in response 2.

I can't believe I didn't think of trying this power supply in another computer. Well, now I know, thanks. Oddly enough, though, the problem seems to have corrected itself. The last several times it's been turned on, it boots fine, and windows loads normally. I appreciate all the help, thank you.