Since I've built my computer, booting up never seems to work right. Ive cleared the Cmos several times on the MB, followed the manual, etc. Lately, I have found a method that works for turning it on.

I power up, get the 'no link' message on the monitor like always. I let the computer run for about 2 minutes. Then i turn the computer off and turn it back on before the fans on the case stop spinning and hold delete. This seems to work.... I have installed Windows XP, many programs, everything seems to be working flawlessly except for the boot process.

However, this can't be a good thing for the cpu or the system in general. What is the PROBLEM here? I've heard it might be the MB BATTERY?

Enermax 550 watt PSU
2x GeForce 7600 GT
Western Digital Caviar HD 320GB
Corsair MEM 2GB, 2X1GB
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (socket 939)
Windows XP (without SP2)

First off, any ideas as to what the problem is before I strip down my system to the essentials and then add stuff untill the problem occurs? Is there really going to be a problem if i continue to boot up like that or can I get by?

Well the battery is certainly the cheapest/easiest solution if that's the trouble so try that first...

Following that if it does not improve run the HDD diagnostics on that HDD from WD.

Still no good ? Test that RAM using MemTest...let it run for awhile. Any ERRORS at all mean bad RAM, replace it.

Still no joy ? Try swapping out that Vid card with a known working one in good shape.

If all this does not help get back to us...