My aunt recently got a new computer, and so give me her old one, that she was having problems with the old one. The problem is that it sometimes doesnt start up, the lights on the front panale light up for a time, and I can hear the fan, and the light for the DVD reader come on, but the moniter doesnt power up, and I dont think the hard drive powers up. Sometimes if the computer is working, it crashes, as if its lost power to the hard drive and moniter, the light on the moniter goes dim. I know it isnt the PS, I replaced it when my aunt still had the computer. I have gone to the webiste of the mobo, but everest says its a M825 VXX, but the webiste doesnt list that version! I am wondering if it is because the leads from the case are in wrong, or faulty. I have downloaded a manual from the website, but am not sure if it would tell me the right infomation. Here are some of the details from everest CPU Type AMD Duron XP, 1300 MHz (13 x 100) Motherboard: PCChips m825vx Chipset: VIA VT8375 ProSavageDDR KM26 Motherboard ID 62-0212-009999-00101111-040201-VIA_K7$M825VXX_Release 02/12/2003 If anybody can help I would be very greatfull.

Yup, it soundss like an intermittent hardware problem on the motherboard.

Yes, sounds like motherboard problem. You can try changing the ram to another slot and see. Knowing the beep codes might help to isolate the problem to cpu or motherboard or ram or graphics card. If the leads from the case to the motherboard are wrong, then you should not be seeing any lights or fans turning, at all.

The 'Vxxx' is probably a generic version number. The M825 v 1.2a manual is here. I imagine that's what you downloaded. I don't know how many versions they have but that manual should give the connection info for all the versions as that's not likely to change. But, as mentioned above, it sounds like a hardware problem and the manual may be of no help.