Hi,
Lately my system has been having problems starting up when i push the power button. It tends to make a beep and lose all power in the first few seconds. After 2 or 3 attempts it would usually power up ok and stay on until I turn it off so I just ignored it.
A few day ago I took it apart and cleaned everything and put it back together and now I'm having serious problems. I usually run 5 hard drives and a few usb components and it seems to handle it, now it won't power on at all no matter how many times I try. Every once and awhile it will but won't last until the OS boots up or dies shortly afterwards.
I've tried using just the one HDD instead of 5 (the one with my Vista Partition) and it still won't work. I've tried reinstalling the OS on a different hard drive and am still getting the same problems with just a few seconds of power and then the system dying which makes me believe its not a hdd problem but power problem. I've reduced my system to the basics, just mobo, cpu, cpu fan, ram, gfx card (unfortunately my mobo has no onboard graphics) and one hard drive and basically need help locating the problem. I've also disconnected all my case fans, disconnected my cd drive, and removed all my usb components except my logitech usb mouse. I believe it's down to either the psu, mobo, cpu or graphics card but my problem is I don't know how to work out which component is causing the problems.
Any help would be hugely appreciated, Thanks.
System:
PSU: Raidmax 520W ATX12V
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Dual Core Socket 939
Mobo: Winfast NF4K8AC-8EKRS
Gfx Card: ATi X850XT 256mb
Ram: DDR400 PC3200 x 4 512mb sticks
CD: LiteOn DVD Combo Drive IDE
HDDs: 5 hard drives, 3x IDE, 2x SATA
Case: Thermaltake Soprano w/ 3x Case fans