No beeps, no video, no hope?

[keith_leitch]

Possibly - never underestimate how much of a PITA PSU issues can be. Sorry - that's no real help but border-line PSUs can really cause confusing behaviour in my experience. Find your spare and give it a try.

Found it, tried it: no change. Of course, there is the possibility that the spare is bad, too, but it is over my head to multitest them.

I can't think of anything else to try. Everything in my box, other than the CPU and motherboard, has been at some stage disconnected, reseated and in some cases replaced. I have replaced the power supply, and tried to boot the system in graduated fractional steps.

Before anyone concludes, "it must be the motherboard," I have to point out that, while I would normally agree, I am nonplussed by the fact that the symptoms appeared, then corrected briefly, then reappeared identically. If the motherboard were causing the problem, I would find it very coincidental that the same problem occurred on separate occasions, rather than continuously.

Any further advice would be appreciated, but it seems hopeless. I think I am about to leave the mediacentre community, and rejoin the rational world.

[stustunz]

does the hard drive show when you boot
does the hard drive make any clicking clunking sounds?

[keith_leitch]

No, it's not the hard drive. I never even got that far.

I took it in to a dude, and he got it running by removing a memory strip. I don't know why, because I did that and it still wouldn't run. Apparently, there is a lot of corrosion due to our proximity to the ocean, and the whole unit needs to be scrubbed down and parts replaced. Thanks to everyone for the time and advice. Memory strips are always my first suspicion, and in this case, my last.

[stustunz]

told you that at the beginning haha sort of ,thats what unplugging and plugging back in is meant to fix
but you said you had already done it just not very well haha

[keith_leitch]

told you that at the beginning haha sort of ,thats what unplugging and plugging back in is meant to fix
but you said you had already done it just not very well haha

Yeah. Practise makes suicidal. Thanks again.

[jcjefferies]

Re seating the memory chips was going to be my first suggestion until I saw you had fixed the problem. The first thing I do if there is a problem with a computer several years old is to unlatch the memory them push it back in then repeat another 4 or 5 times. It has cured numerous faults over the years even on Dell and IBM server.