Computer will not boot...Halp!!

[JoeyHookster]

Computer will not boot. Out of last 20 tries this is how far it gets:
8 - no display, no post (that I can see), no beeps, no nothing...everything is powered up though
5 - display goes to sleep (amber light) when windows begins to load just after seeing the splash screen
4 - gets past post, but not far enough that windows is loading, unpingable
2 - Windows loads, but monitor immediately goes to sleep
1 - Windows was running normally for 20 minutes before monitor went to sleep

This is what Ive done so far:
1. Disconnected cdrom, both hard drives, video card, 3 fans, 2 light tubes, heat sink...then vacuumed the entire case (its been like 6 months since I opened my case, tons of dust). Reassembled, and it worked for a little while
2. Swapped monitors
3. Removed video card and used onboard (swapped monitor again)
4. Removed 1 stick of RAM, tried different slots, alternated
5. Kept disconnected second hard drive, cdrom drive, 1 RAM, 3 fans, 2 lights and all unnecessary peripherials. Entered setup and slightly underclocked (basically set to default values for CPU/FSB/RAM)
6. Safe mode/Last known - has never got into windows this way, just ambers out

If I can get as far as pressing F8, I can sit on that screen for an hour or forever

My friend bought one of those PCI tester cards, worth borrowing? I could probably borrow another PSU as well.

Leadtek Winfast K7NCR18G
AMD Athlon XP 2500+
Kingston HyperX 1GB (512MBx2) DDR PC-3200
Sapphire ATI Ultimate Radeon 9700 Pro
DELL UltraSharp 2001FP 20.1-inch LCD
Antec True Power 430
WinXp

This is the reason we buy laptops...to post threads when our desktop is broke.

 

[JoeyHookster]

I thought this was a hardware forum...

 

[hignaki]

I thought this was a hardware forum...

Don't expect super-fast answers, man.

You should try borrowing the testing card. I use one made my MicroScope, and it seems to pinpoint problems faster than google, at times.