Okay, I know this had to be bad, but I did it and now I'm looking to correct it. I recently bought some used parts from a buddy of mine: a Soyo Dragon mobo (original dragon) with an AMD 2400+ or something like that in it, and a Radeon 8500. I wanted to upgrade my family's computer. Not being the sort that likes to deal with the mundane details, I ripped the old system out (mobo and expansion cards) connected the hdd to the new board after mounting it, turned the mofo on and let windows detect it little new hardware heart out. I then updated drivers and such (not completely sure if I deleted all the old), and figured I'd let it run to see how it survived having its organs replaced. Needless to say, I've run into some problems. Random crashing/shutdowns occur about once or twice a week. So, this weekend I'm gonna do a complete format and reinstall. Now, my real problem is that I just went downstairs to do something for my brother, I turned the computer on, the thing came up for about 3 or 4 seconds and then just shut off. I'm betting it didn't even get through POST (heck the monitor didn't even have time to kick in). After it did this three or so times, I turned the thing sideways, ripped off the side panel and stared it down for a coupla minutes. I tried turning it on again and found that one of my fans inside (either cpu or chipset) is making a godawful noise. Thing repeats it tantrum, so I promptly stare it down some more. 'Bout a minute or two later, I press the ole power button again and this time it boots ( still with a little godawful noisiness). Way I figure right now, maybe one of the fans is going down the crapper and the chipset overheated a little (crossed some threshold) and the mobo detected this and promptly shut itself down. Both fans spin up though and given their close proximity its hard to judge which one reeks of godawfulness. So, my question is, given what I've told you (no post without stare down, and major organ replacement surgery) any clue as to what might be the problem? Hate has a way of closing the eyes, the ears, and the hearts of men.

Disconnect the CPU fan and power up for about a second to see if the chipset fan is the one causing the noise. Don't let it go for more than a couple seconds - don't want to fry your CPU. ANyway you shuld be able to determine which fan is causing the problem at that point. It does sound like the fan is your problem. Try replacing the bad fan and see if that helps. Of course you could try the stare down again that it a time proven method of PC repair. Michael J

If you are on a totally new HDD that previously has a copy of Windows on it, I am surprised you even made it that far. Normally, Windows looks for a Computer ID that is determined by the motherboard and hardware there. If it doesnt find this during it's loading process, it goes back to the post screen and starts over into a loop. It may in your case totally shut the computer down. You may have to reinstall XP over itself to renew the Computer ID to the OS but you shouldn't lose info if you do it right. Get that fan checked out too though, if that doesnt work, try this.

Probably the cpu fan. No fan, no boot, no beeps, nada.

yea, I figure its the cpu fan. I'm about to reinstall XP and I'll try to replace the cpu HSF this weekend. Thanks to all who replied. Hate has a way of closing the eyes, the ears, and the hearts of men.