I have this really dumb problem with the PC i put together a few months ago on a shoestring budget. I'm thinking it's a PSU problem but has anyone encountered this before.

If the PC is switched on from a cold boot or reset, all the lights and fans come on, but the system doesent post and nothing happens. If I switch the machine off it ALLWAYS boots correctly on the 3rd attempt. This is why it's not a major problem, more a pain in the ***. I cant understand why it allways works on the 3rd attempt,

Can anyone give me any adive?

Thanks In advance

System:

DFI LANPARTY UT NF3 250GB

AMD Athlon 64 Mobile 3200+

1GB PC3200DDR

WD 80GB SATA

Nvidia 7600GS 512MB AGP

Coolermaster Aquagate Liquid Cooling System (temps are usually 45 on CPU)

400w generic PSU

Can't say for sure but I'd try a new more powerful psu - not had much experience of the new amd chips but I thought they were quite power hungry???

Have had similar before with a pentium 4 system and a cheapo generic psu, never did really solve it but upgraded the case and didn't notice it again. (Have since upgrade board, chip, graphics and ram so not much original left!)

Might be worth testing the RAM in case there's a duff stick in there (if there is more than one installed) - I use a proggie called memtest 86, quite old but seems to work well in it's own version of DOS, sure there are plenty of utilities out there you could download for free to try.

How odd....I agree maybe it's a PSU problem because I can't think what else it could be; that is a low-power machine but the PSU might just be knackered. Maybe try it with another one....and put the BIOS back to defaults.....erm....:confused:

why would it boot perfectly on the third attempt though?

Any other stability issues when using the pc? frequent crashing and the like

If the psu comes on perfectly every boot and you dont have any other stability issues could it be the motherboard

either way a new psu will give you the answer.

Try a decent PSU, generic 400w PSU often is 400w peak, as opposed to 400w sustained.

I had the same problem. Try out a new PSU.. maybe a good 520w then if it still keeps booting funny do a good old RAM test Memtest86 - Memory Diagnostic Page. Failing that look at your Mbrd...

million to 1, Total shot in the dark here, but how long does your cooling system take to start pumping? AMD's tend to be very sensative to overheating and I believe will shut themselves down if they get to hot. It used to be the case that they would cook within seconds of powering up.

Could it be that it takes the time of the 3 starts to get the water cooler running fully?

(I've not looked into self builds for a long time now so probably way off the mark)

million to 1, Total shot in the dark here, but how long does your cooling system take to start pumping? AMD's tend to be very sensative to overheating and I believe will shut themselves down if they get to hot. It used to be the case that they would cook within seconds of powering up.

Could it be that it takes the time of the 3 starts to get the water cooler running fully?

(I've not looked into self builds for a long time now so probably way off the mark)

Thats a very good suggestion, but it still has a heatsink/waterblock over it which Im sure will take the slack for a few seconds,

i am thinking after all this that the mobo might be at fault, No 754 board is officially designed to work with a mobile processor either, and many don't work at all. Maybe that might be the cause