Originally Posted by DJNafey

Another idea with a bit more substance behind it: Have you tried swapping the power leads so that you use the known-good lead to the hard disk in the CD drive instead and a spare lead (if you've got one) in the other CD drive?

Also, have you tried a different mains lead and/or a different mains wall socket (preferably in a different room)?

ive swapped PSU supply connectors and leads. I've just tried a different socket and i swapped the lead from my monitor, but it still happens.
im tempted to just buy another PSU and see what happens. if the problem is still there, then i guess ive got a case for buying a new mobo and processor convicing my g/f that its an 'essential investment' is a different matter though

**just after writing this post, i opened an application and it done the same reboot thing. this is the first time this has happened without my touching the cd drawer **

**further: whilst browsing, heard a 'click' form pc and heard some spinning (not sure if it was a fan or HD) followed by Explorer freeze, then mouse freeze, the the dreaded blue screen with a Kernal Stack Error. Did a reset and it booted up fine **

im off to bed. maybe the pc fairies will take pity on me and fix it overnight.

Could something (e.g. an IDE cable or power cable) be getting caught in one of the fans?

A click and then some quiet spinning could also be the first sign of a hard disk that's packing up (getting stuck inside, freeing itself - that's the click - and then starting to spin again)

Well pc finally packed up yesterday. continous rebooting without me pressing anything. got it on workbench, stripped and rebuilt with just PSU and Mobo/CPU, switched it on and all kind of strange things happened and then power failed. fuse in plug had blown. went through three fuses before giving up. new PSU coming today, so hopefully, HOPEFULLY, itll fix it.

Fingers crossed for you Jen

I hear that sorted it - that's good

well.........lol.......yes, but today i had to purchase a new gfx card cos although everything runs fine now (no strange noises, no resetting when i close drawer) the fan on my old trusty TNT2 died and i just couldnt get any pics out of it (usual flashing button on monitor). To be honest, in a way im glad it happned cos ive learnt lots about fault finding and it gave me an excuse to convince my gf that my pc needed essential works done :-)
My conclusion as to the cause: NEVER LEAVE YOUR PC AND GO ON HOLIDAY ON WHEN ITS VERY HUMID AND HOT OUTSIDE AND NO WINDOWS WILL BE OPENED IN YOUR HOUSE FOR A WEEK. /BLUSH

and lastly, many many thanks for all replys i got :-) its nice to see people willing to help and not getting all 'oh look, someone else who knows nothing about pc's' etc etc

well well well. got in from work last night and installed my brand-new gfx card. and nothing. power is there but something somewhere is not right. i dont think its a faulty monitor and i know its not the card, as ive now had two diff cards in the system. also, when i do a power on, i used to be able to turn the NUM LOCK on and off. My keyboard is one of the multimedia ones, where you have to activate the top keys to be f-keys and this also used to be able to done during initial boot. both fuctions dont work, but i know the keyboard is connected ok, as when i do power-on, the three function lights flash on and off once.
I have an MSI mainboard, which had a d-brakcet, which is basicaly a USB2.0 and 4-LED diagnostic PCI card. when i boot-up it shows an array of LED's which the manual says indicates that 'system is initializing IDE device/controller'. This is all without a hard-drive being plugged in.

so the PSU was definatley faulty and now that fine. I made the assumption that because the fan on my gfx card wasnt working, that this was causing my lack of VGA output (thought maybe card just wouldnt operate if fan was faulty). new AGP card has gone in and problem still occurs. this is all with basic set-up ie. PSU(Def works and brand new), MOBO (MSI KT3 Ultra2), GFX CARD(2 cards, one brand new give same result).

I have stripped down the pc and re-built slowly and done the obvious checks.

any ideas?? should i just write to MSI?? New Mobo?? give up and take up flower-pressing??

Oh dear

When you did a "bare-bones" rebuild, did you plug the internal system speaker in? Does it emit any beeps when you switch on? The pattern of beeps is a diagnostic code (a bit like morse code really). One beep means the POST completed successfully and the system expects to be able to boot up OK, whereas several beeps means there's a problem somewhere and the number of beeps tells you what to look at.

Also, try plugging in the power cable and IDE ribbon cable into the floppy drive. Some PCs don't boot without them .

Are the old TNT2 card and new GFX card both AGP?

Well. Turns out the processor had gone. Ive sent the old board to MSI to be tested cos its still sick even with NEW processor. So now i have brand new MSI KT6V board with NEW XP2200 CPU (dont forget the new PSU that I had to get) lol. And as my g/f bought me Doom III, the TNT2 went (gonna try and get new fan from Manu's) and in went new Geforce FX card :-) Total cost was about 200 quid!!! :-(
But many thanks for all the help. I guess i was just majorly unlucky and have vowed NEVER to leave my pc on again when i go away (windows/doors shut, 2 fans in pc already faulty, and at the peak of english summer time).

Ive had a few problems with XP/drivers and a memory problem, so watch another space for more threads

cheers peeps

No problem Jen