ok here it is. when i turn the computer on it starts the start up process. about 5 or so seconds in to it it stops and starts over again. it does make a faint click SOUND when it does this. it is not the hard drive b/c i put the hdd into my other computer and it boots just fine. at first the fan over the chip set was beeeping but when i unplugged it to examine it i put it BACK in and reconnected it and it has stopped doing this. could this be caused by a bad power supply? i dont believe that the ram is bad but im not 100% on that. or could this be a heat related problem? i dont think it is due to the fact that it does this right away when you turn it on and just keeps repeating it, so it is not starting out hot. please help as i am getting frustrated.......thanx.When you say the (fan over the chip set ) are you referring to the CPU fan and heat sink?Well, if it was working fine and it just started doing this loop it's a good chance it's the power supply, swap in a known good one and you can eliminate the power supply if it still occurs......That clicking may be overload protection in the power supply kicking in............then reseat your ram.yes i mean the fan and heat sink over the cpu.
Did you replace the thermal paste?

Also Karnac has a good point if you have a spare power supply. i did a little more research, here is my next theory. the beaping is coming from my cpu. it is from what i read "crying for help". the pattern it is giving is 5 SHORT beeps. it is an AMD ATHLON 64 3800+ PROCESSOR, and the motherboard says ECS HT2000 on it. if what i read is right i just need to figure out what that beep sequence means and it will tell me the problem area. no luck finding this out yet though. if any one knows where i can find a data base for this i would greatly appreciate it!

by the way i swapped out power supplies and that is not the problem.Try this website

http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk/Articles/Motherboard/BIOSbeep.shtmlaccording to the beep codes the processor is bad. like i stated before the processor i have now is an AMD Athlon 64 3800+ i think it is 2.3ghz. i could not find this one any place i looked. what i did find in my price range is an AMD Athlon X2 5200 Brisbane 2.7ghz for about $55. these are both socket AM2. the questions i have now are.....

1) will my old fan and heat sink work for this or will i need a new one

2) what else do i need to make this switch i.e. thermal paste ect.

3) is there anything special i need to do after i install it and before i turn it on. or will my machine just boot up as it normally should and automaticly recognize the new processor

thanx again for all of your help!!!!!!