Computer restarts before boot

[chicken]

recently i went out and bought a new mobo, cpu and case along with a new stick of ram(asrock 939dual, amd 64 4000+, random case, and kingston 512mb pc3200)

i installed all the parts, it booted up to the bios and such, but it refuses to boot to windows from the hard drive, which previously had it installed, thinking that the new hardware caused it, i stuck in my windows install cd. the installation was routine until after it had loaded all the files, it restarted my computer.

thinking this may have been the cd recognizing the install of windows on the hd, i stuck in a live linux cd(pclinux os) and it again appeared normal until it had finished loading all the files, when it promptly rebooted again..

i had an older, but identicle stick of kingston ram in there with it, a generic cd drive which seems to work, and a maxtor 40gb hd.

has anyone seen this before?

 

[mailpup]

If you haven't already, you need to install the motherboard chipset and controller drivers that should be on a CD that came with the motherboard. The hard drive you are reusing still has the old motherboard drivers which aren't working for the new board. If the old hard drive happens to be SATA, don't forget to install the SATA/RAID drivers too.

 

[chicken]

Although it seems that i had forgotten to do that, and now that i have, it seems to have made little difference, and it still re-boots after loading essential OS files off of the install cd's.

 

[chicken]

m-kay, i tried a different HD(quantum fireball, 5gb. few years old but it still works)

same thing happend

this isn't a hd issue, as i did load the mobo drivers with the new hd installed and the such.

i have no damn clue why this is happening.

 

[N3051M]

tried reseating the components? ram, vid card, cpu etc.. also check the hsf and the thermal for the cpu is on properly.. also look into the power going to the devices ok?

 

[chicken]

power is getting to all of them, the thermal compound is spread nicely and everything seems to be working fine.

i did take it apart and i found some white residue on the bottom of the mother board however, and i have a feeling the mobo may have shorted out.

can anyone confirm that white residue would be a sign of a short? it is primarily around the edges of the mobo, and the fringes of where the cpu/northbridge/southbridge are.

 

[Tedster]

sometimes electronics companies spray parts with a silicone compound so they won't corrode or rot in storage. It is non-conductive, but it will turn white over a long period of time and flake - especially in hot, dry environments. You can purchase electrical parts cleaner from any electronics shop and spray it off, ensure the cleaner is fully dry before re-applying power.

 

[Liquidlen]

Try taking a look at an update to your Bios ,The web site should give you a description of issues that may relate to your Box's characteristics.
Also did you try resetting The CMOS?

 

[chicken]

i've tried resetting the cmos, did nothing. i was looking into flashing my bios, but i don't want to unless absolutley needed, i have lost a computer in the past due to a bad bios upgrade.

 

[Liquidlen]

You are correct . Which is why I said to check and see if any issues the upgrades list, relate to your configuration.
Flashing the BIOS is a necessary process sometimes.

 

[chicken]

well, i finally got a chance to try and flash the bios

verdict? the floppy drive won't work

light stays on, i flip the cable around, still stays on.

my, my, always issues....