boot trouble

Hey everyone,

We have a AMD athlon 1gHz with an MSI K7 motherboard. When the
power is switched on, it boots for 1 second or so, then the power
is cut off and the system is powered down (this happens in an instance,
its impossible to tell whether is it intended or maybe a power supply
problem. This happens when the diagnostic lights on the motherboard is
at step 2 (memory). Now even if something is wrong with the memory, it
should not shutdown should it? The screen switches on for half a second
then goes to standby.

Now the weird thing is that the system worked perfectly before, the
only thing I did was switch the harddrive.

Does anyone have any idea what is going? it all seems rather illogical.
Or does anyone know what group I could better ask this question in?

Thanks in advance,
Vincent

Vincent van Beveren <> wrote in message news:<40c6cb6b$0$559$>...
> Hey everyone,
>
> We have a AMD athlon 1gHz with an MSI K7 motherboard. When the
> power is switched on, it boots for 1 second or so, then the power
> is cut off and the system is powered down (this happens in an instance,
> its impossible to tell whether is it intended or maybe a power supply
> problem.


That really sounds like the Cpu is overheating or th motherboard is
trying to protect itself from overheating. Although, i am not sure it
th amd athlons are supported by this, i know for sure intel is. But
check the cpu fan is connected and spinning. You could try to clean
out any dust and foriegn material. If that does not work you could
clear the cmos to the fatory defaults. At last resort you could check
the seal w/ the cpu and the heatsink. But that wil require you to add
some thermal grease.


This happens when the diagnostic lights on the motherboard is
> at step 2 (memory). Now even if something is wrong with the memory, it
> should not shutdown should it? The screen switches on for half a second
> then goes to standby.
>
> Now the weird thing is that the system worked perfectly before, the
> only thing I did was switch the harddrive.
>

You might have hit or dislodged something, be sure to check all of the
connectors and cables. Be sure to check the ram to

> Does anyone have any idea what is going? it all seems rather illogical.
> Or does anyone know what group I could better ask this question in?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Vincent


Hope this helps,

-ANDREW

I had the same thing happen to me and twice and both times the
solution was different. The firs time I found a problem with the fan
on the cpu, it would get stuck and not work. After installing a new
fan the problem went away. the second time I found that the replacing
the hard drive solved the problem, I dont understand why. This was a
different computer then the one I mentioned before and the drive
worked fine until that day, I also put that drive in a different
machine and it worked perfectly.

I would say try either disconnecting the existing hard drive and see
if you get past the post (power on self test). Or if you have another
hard drive, try replacing your new one.