Here are the specs:

Mach Speed mobo
AMD Duron 1.8
512 mb Viking RAM
80 GB Hitachi HD
WinXP Pro w/sp2

When I booted up earlier today, the boot was EXTREMELY SLOW. It spent about 20 seconds on the boot screen, moved to a second boot screen, but never started booting up XP.

After it sat around for about an hour unplugged, I tried it one more time before taking it to the SHOP.  It worked!  Booted up fine, just like normal.  20 minutes later I had the same problem again: after a restart, it froze.

I already determined that the RAM and HD are fine.  I left to go buy a new mobo and processor and got back about 4 hours later.  Figured I would boot up one more time before tearing the THING apart.  What do you know, it worked again.  No sign of any problems.

I'm SO confused.  At this point I can't even try replacing components to figure out which one is bad because sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  If anybody has any ideas what could be causing these problems please let me know.  I'm very confused.


Here's a brief recap for those who chose not to read the long narative above:

- Veeeeeerrrrrrrryyyyyy ssssssllllllllloooooooowwwwww when booting.

- Can get into BIOS, but won't begin to boot XP pro.

- After SITTING for awhile, it works fine.

- Problem isn't with the RAM.

- Have a new mobo and processor (both still in the box) sitting next to me, I'm willing to try them if you think it will help.


Thank you in advance.

Quote

It spent about 20 seconds on the boot screen, moved to a second boot screen, but never started booting up XP.

Could the problem be caused by heat?  The computer was in a *SPAM* (nice and hidden) and the cabinet was getting pretty hot.  The CPU and case temp. were both just below 50 C.  I'm thinking that the mobo was getting too hot.  I've had the computer out of the cabinet for a couple days now and haven't had a single problem.