This is a brand new system - started off with a 380W PS.
Specs:
AMD Dual core X2 64 5000+
Abit Motherboard - model NF-M2S (Socket AM2)
1 Gig DDR2 Ram (tried other sticks of RAM to attempt to isolate RAM issue)
Integrated Video - NVidia Geforce FX 6100
* Disabled onboard video and put in a Radeon X5115
1 SATA WD HDD - 500 gig
Windows XP Pro SP2 - all service packs installed/patches
I turn on the computer - and it does it's POST - and begins to load windows - showing the Windows XP screen with the animated scrolling at the bottom - after about 5-10 seconds of this - the computer just completely shuts down. I am on the computer now in "Safe mode with Networking" and all seems fine...
I have reformatted the drive 3 times now and re-installed Windows XP - and even tried a different CD to install from (MSDN retail version) - and it's all the same.
I thought it may be a power issue - so I went and purchased a 550W PS with dual fan cooling.
I successfully upgraded the BIOS to the latest available with no problems.
I've ran chkdsk several times - and all seemed ok - if it found anything it apparently has not marked it as bad.
I have disconnected the DVD (IDE) and it still will just power down.
CPU Temp is ok - 30-34c - System is close to the same in temp.
I have reseated the CPU and made sure everything is connected properly -
I also moved the 1 gig of ram to the other slot - same results
The case has 2 system fans and I have had the side off for awhile - making sure it wasn't a heat issue.
I then took my computer to work - thinking maybe the voltage here is screwed up - but it did the same thing at work...shuts down completely during boot....
Changed power cords - (using the one that came with the new Power supply)
*Note - the system worked perfectly for about 30 days - and I powered it down one day - then went to power it back up - and ever since then it's had this problem. The power supply issue has been taken out of being suspect because I replaced it - also replaced the SATA cable to the hdd to the mother board.
I inspected the mother board very closely for any swollen / leaking capacitors and they all look fine - as this is a brand new mother board.
I tried disabling the onboard HD Audio in the bios and in safe mode from the device manager - thinking something was wacked with that - and nothing..
I have totally exhausted all my thoughts / knowledge of PCs in troubleshooting this problem - the only last thing I can think of is the hard drive is bad (but why does it book fine in safe mode?) or something is wrong with the CPU (which I didn't replace being it's the most expensive component...not really an option right now - also the CPU fan is operating at normal speeds. I have ran a CPU test program called "CPUStabTest.exe" and let it run for a little over an hour ** in safe mode ** and everything seemed fine - nothing crashed - and I have no idea what it was doing - but it would hit my DVD drive - so I guess it was cycling through all devices and pushing the CPU because it did suck up CPU % time.
The memory voltage is 1.8v - and I tried - just for grins setting it on the old chip to 1.9v and nothing...
The BIOS is holding the settings - so I know it's not a battery issue either..
Today I powered it down - removed the power cable - moved the CMOS jumper to clear CMOS - and removed the battery - let it sit for about 5 minutes - then put it all back - and it did reset the CMOS completely and held the boot seq. and time (only things I changed to keep it at defaults)
No go - so I tried fail-safe settings - no go - I tried optimized settings - no go...
Does anyone have any ideas? I am totally stuck...
Anyone have any ideas that I could have missed? This is very frustrating.
Thanks in advance!
Britt
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