Computer will not start, recurring problem

[jhamel]

Ok, so a couple days ago I started my computer, it ran fine for a few minutes and then froze. I hit the reset button and the monitor lost its signal, the HDD LED went on and stayed on, and nothing else happened. It did not even display a BIOS or setup screen. I stripped the system down to just mobo, CPU, and memory and checked the power supply. When i powered back up with this barebone system it behaved exactly the same, so i figured the problem was a fried mobo.

So I swapped out the mobo, CPU, and RAM and reconnected all the other components, and it started up fine. It ran like that for about a day, I shut it down last night and it shotdown ok, then I tried to power it back up a few minutes ago and it has the exact same problem as before. The power supply turns on, the fans spin, the HDD LED comes on and stays on, and nothing else. Again I stripped the system down to barebone and it still does not work.

Can anybody tell me what is going on?

Old system was:
AMD Sempron 2800+
ASRock K7S41GX motherboard
2x 256MB RAM

Swapped with:
Intel P4 2.8 GHz
HP P4SD Motherboard
1x 512MB RAM

Thank you for your help

 

[beef_jerky4104]

If you used an inexpencive power supply that is likely the problem.

 

[jhamel]

I checked the power supply with a multimeter. All output voltages are correct.

 

[foozy]

HDD LED comes on and stays on

That right there just screams software holdup or corrupted hard drive to me.

When i powered back up with this barebone system

Did you just power up the mobo, cpu, and RAM? Or did you attach the HDD/Optical to it?

 

[jhamel]

I hooked everything back up. Both hard drives, the video card, the wireless LAN, the CD and the DVD drives all worked fine with the new mobo/cpu/RAM for about a day before this same thing happened.

 

[Tmagic650]

I checked the power supply with a multimeter. All output voltages are correct.

Replace the power supply... A simple multimeter check can't really ensure a good power supply

 

[foozy]

oth hard drives, the video card, the wireless LAN, the CD and the DVD drives all worked fine with the new mobo/cpu/RAM for about a day before this same thing happened.

Did you run a CHKDSK on each hard drive? Are they fresh windows installs?

 

[jhamel]

Swapped the power supply and it still does the same thing with both of the pervious boards.

The hard disk does have a fresh windows install on it (XP SP2). However, I can't blame the hard disks because even when they are not hooked up and I start the system it does not even enter BIOS. It will not start even when I have nothing except the mobo powered.

Any more ideas anybody?