hiya,

i just found out about this site last night and the members here seem very knowledgable and willing to help, so i thought id give it a shot.

The problem
the computer takes around two minutes before it will P.O.S.T., and the first few seconds after i power it on, the monitor displays an image that says the monitor isnt connected to the computer, again this goes away after a few seconds. once the computer gets to windows, it works fine but then eventually its almost like explorer stops functioning - for example, i will open the C: hard drive from my computer and the the box is empty, not listing any files. the start bar / windows navigator pane at the bottom stops working / responding. i will be able to alt tab to switch to different applications but i wont be able to use the start bar at the bottom to switch. sometimes programs wont even start up when i double click them. so after this happens i usually decide to put in some emo music and then cut my wrists for a few minutes until i try to reboot the computer, or shut it down, but of course that will just hang at the screen where it says "windows is shutting down..." and wont progress from there. i end up hitting the reset button on the tower to force a reboot, and then go thru the whole 2 minute to post ordeal again. however, the computer usually runs great, until something triggers the downfall, im not sure what. i dont think its a heat problem, the motherboard temp is always around 23 C, cpu about 33 C, and the GPU around 50 C when gaming, idles around 40 C. so definitely doesnt seem like a temperature problem.

like an *****, i tried to flash the bios thru the asus bios update program that came with my mobo, but im not sure if that was a smart idea since it cant even reboot properly. the bios shows the correct date now, so hopefully it worked. last night i re-sat my memory, sound card, and pci-e card but to no avail.

so basically im hoping people may have some suggestions that i could try =\

thanks in advance

My computer's stats
Asus a8-r32 mvp deluxe (ati xpress 3200) motherboard
Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2 2GB Kit DDR400 XMS3200 Memory
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ Processor (ClawHammer) Socket 939
COOLMAX CTG-750 ATX12V 750W Power Supply 230Vac
Razer usb mouse
old logitech elite usb keyboard
ide hard drive
sata hard drive

Edit
forgot to mention, drivers are all up to date with exception of sound card which i may try to acquire today (dialup = lol). also, when i power on the computer, before it posts, the cd-rom makes clicking noises like its trying to read a disc, but there is never a disc in there when i power on. i disconnected the cd rom ide cable and power cable, but that didnt stop the problem. right now i am working on systematically swapping parts out to try to pin point the problem if possible. so far ive tried using only 1 stick of ram instead of 2, and tried both in the same slot that the motherboard manual recommends for using only one stick. tried disconnecting the sata hard drive cable and power from the mobo as well, using the ide hard drive instead. will try the other way around to see if maybe the ide hard drive is at fault. im really hoping its not a gpu or mobo problem.