PC resets automatically (mobo?)

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Sys specs:
Intel P4 2.8Ghz Northwood Socket 478
Asus P4P800-E Deluxe
Antec 550watt TRUE550 power supply
2 West digital raptor 74gb drives in RAID 0
pny geforce 6800 ultra OR nvidia 32mb riva video card
Corsair XMS series CMX512-3200C2 DDR400 2x 512Mb (1gig total)

What happened:
I was sitting playing a game one day and my computer just turned off! I pressed the button to power it back on and started up without a display and shortly after powered down again. The latest addition 2 weeks earlier was replacement of my generic ddr400 ram that ran at 266mhz to the corsair memory which runs at 333mhz due to processor limitations at the moment. I gave it a rest and came back and turned on the pc again, this time i got a display and the harddrive activity light remained lite and didn't blink. The system soon shut off after 10 seconds or so. So I started the steps and troubleshooting below.

Steps that lead to problem:
I turn PC on and it boots up into POST then after a random amount of time the system powers off. I've seen it go into the windows emblem during bootup at most, at least ive turned it on and after bout 1 second it turns off. I've unplugged everything but processor, motherboard, video card (both 6800 ultra and riva card), and power supply and still does this as well. I have also tried a different motherboard (Gigabyte GA-8SG667) as well with same minimum configuration AND tried a different P4 northwood processor, the 2.4Ghz model. I have also swapped the power supply with a Enermax 420watt noisetaker and still have the same issue. I've also tried different configurations such as 1 stick ram and dual channel ram as well.

Conclusion:
I think it may be the cables that connect to the motherboard from the case and prehaps one has problem in it?

Any thoughts, ideas, or past possible solutions are welcome please :)
 
Put the parts together outside the case and see if it runs normally. I had a similar problem and it turned out to be the back plate touching one of the motherboard ports.
 
this can also be overheating/faulty fan,check all the fans see if anything is obstructing it or if it is actually spinning.
 
Did this problem just start? I doubt very highly that is your powersupply lets run memory test 86 and see how you make out.. You can find that HERE also check Asus web site there soem new BIOS updates there read themm before you update your BIOS and only use as a last resort.
 
vegasgmc: I'll try that but I tried that with another motherboard and still had same problem as mentioned in the first post.

shadow_29: The fans are working fine, but ill try putting a house fan to it see if it does anything.

tbrunt3: yes the problem JUST started. I've had this motherboard in there for bout lil over 7 months or so now and only replaced the ram a few weeks ago. I have tried the older ram i had, which works on other pc's as well, but does the same thing to MY pc system. And I cannot update BIOS if the pc won't stay on, which is mentioned in the first post. The BIOS is up to date as of probably a month ago (beta version) and has worked fine ever since. I have also cleared CMOS settings by removing battery and that hasn't fixed the problem either. I'll try memory testing on another pc when I get a chance tommaro morning (monday). The pc has booted so far the longest into the windows logo screen and shortest just into the POST.

A buddy of mine has an extra case so I may just try to see if its the cables from the case to the motherboard afterall. A cable may of gone bad or not.
 
Put the 2.8Ghz processor in another socket 478 p4 working system and the processor works fine for sure.

Fan didn't resolve any heating problems if any existed at all.

Put extra working 2.4Ghz processor from other system in trouble system and still have same problem.

UPDATE: Tried another known working power supply from the working p4 system on the trouble system and still had same problem.

UPDATE 11:25est: Put the RAM from trouble system into the other p4 working system, both sticks. The system would boot up POST and then screen would go blank (but Monitor didnt shift modes to power down) and nothing would happen. Removed one of the 512Mb sticks and the system would boot up into windows all way without error. More to come...

UPDATE 11:37am est: Running memtest 86 (http://www.memtest86.com/#download0) off a boot floppy to test ram. Results soon...
 
A memory stick was bad, I even tried the culpret memory stick on the working system and the working system would not boot up.
 
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