Ok, I just installed Windows ME on my computer. After installing it, I tried installing Windows XP. When the setup up process would begin my computer would shut off. I tried this over and over again,a nd still had the same result. After about 4 tries windows stopped detecting my CD-ROM drives and now my computer randomly shuts down. Any ideas of what the problem might be? Maybe the power supply is not powerful enough?

OK, did this computer ever work properly? What changed? OK, what size power supply do you have?

I had a computer with a 1400 MHZ processor and a different motherboard in it. I changed the processor to the 2600+ AMD and an MSI motherboard. I formatted the hard drive, and tried installing XP, but the setup kept shutting down the computer. So I installed ME. ME kept crashing so bad I had to format the hard drive again and reinstall ME, and it works more often now, but it still shuts down the computer a lot. I'm running the processor, the motherboard, 2 hard drives, a DVD ROM, CDRW, and I cannot put any PCI cards in at all or the computer crashes.

I don't think XP requires more watts than ME, but you might have a power problem anyway. Some power supply vendor sites will estimate how big a PSU you need based upon all the installed equipment. If your new system is stable with no DVD or CD or cards plugged in, and gets unstable when you plug in more & more hardware, it sounds like a PSU problem. Or you might need new drivers. I would guess you need 300W, maybe 350. Did you run the new mobo/processor with the old OS for a day or so? Was it stable then? Changing everything at the same time is not a good idea.

Yeah, your best bet is to remove some of the load, to see if that solves the problem. I'd start with the 2nd hard drive. Could even be your CPU overheating and some sort of motherboard thermal protection kicking in to prevent damage. Im running a PII-450 with two hdds, CD-RW and DVD-ROM and using a 400W PSU to be on the safe side. James

Just to add my two penneth... Firstly, I'd recommend at the very least a 300watt PSU, preferably a 350Watt or higher. Secondly... You say that with any PCI cards in, the system is completely unuseable.... It's possible that when you put the new motherboard in you may have needed to move some of the little brass screw mountings that the motherboard screws onto. Take the motherboard out and make sure that ALL of the little brass mountings line up with the holes in your motherboard and that there are none left anywhere else. Also while the board is out, check to make sure that no other screws have escaped from anywhere and have become lodged underneath the motherboard. I am a technician by trade and have seen that one before where a customer's PC kept shutting off. It turned out that a screw had escaped from somewhere and got stuck between the motherboard and the case and was shorting out and powering off the PC. It would also figure with the not being able to use and PCI cards since adding a PCI card puts pressure on the motherboard, thus squashing the board against the rogue screw underneath. Hope this helps Regards Simon

My computer just goes blank and when it wants to. The other day i was on the internet getting some lyrics for a song and the screen went blank but the computer was still running and sometomes if your lucky you press buttons on the keyboard and the computer comes back to life but you cant use any programs or it'll go blank again. Other times it just restarts on its own but when windows has started the screen goes blank. It never used to do this so why does it do it now? please help me... Joel