Hi Bonny,

Sounds like a possible thermal (heat related) problem, typically when
trying to debug these types of things you strip down the system to the bare
minimum. I have seen systems which will appear to just hang if the hard
disk is having a problem. Could be yours is non-responsive when cold, this
isn't uncommon for older drives. You can try disconnecting the hard disk to
see if you can get some response (like a POST or CMOS screen) in a
reasonable amount of time. Also disconnect any other drive (like CD or DVD
drives).

You can also try removing the LAN card since you say it gives error messages.

Once you have isolated that either of these components is causing a
problem, you can replace it.

If the problem still exists after disconnecting the drives and LAN card,
the next step would be to check the processor and memory and reseat them.
If you feel uncomfortable with these steps though, you may need to take it
to a qualified shop.

HTH,
Russ Poffenberger
[log in to unmask]

At 03:08 AM 8/31/2005, you wrote:
>Group,
>
>      from the last one month my  PC has been behaving
>quiet mysteriously. Whenever I switch it on it takes a
>long time to boot up. The Hard disk and the Power
>lights are continously on and the monitor light is
>just blinking. After about 15 - 20 minutes the PC
>boots up normally. There is no long or short beeps.
>However, when I am switching of the system during this
>period a very short beep comes up. After the system
>has come up, If I reboot the system the PC boots up
>normally without any problems. Also if I shut down my
>PC and start it all over within a short duration of
>time it boots normally.
>I have tried the following to no avail
>1. I have changed the CMOS battery.
>2. I have disassembled the PC and assembled it again.
>3. Changed the BIOS settings to Default settings,
>4. Changed the BIOS Settings to Load Fail Safe
>Features.
>4. removed the CMOS jumper and seated it back.
>5. I have formatted my primary and installed a fresh
>copy of Windows allover again.
>
>My PC's Configuration is as follows
>1. Pentium 3 800 MHz
>2. 810E chipset mother board
>3. Award Modular Bios
>4. 128 MB of RAM
>5. 20GB Hard Disk.
>6. RealTek LAN Card.
>7. Win XP
>
>
>
>Lately I have found that after the long time the
>system takes to start up, the BIOS screen does not
>appear and directly the Windows screen comes up.
>Also sometimes when the sytem has started there is a
>message which says that "Windows has given a serious
>error." the error says that there has been a problem
>with the IP address and the configuration of the
>computer. With this the LAN icon in My Network places
>dissappears.  I had to remove the LAN card and install
>it again. I feel that the Windows error would have
>come because of the problem in Hardware as the error
>had popped after the fresh installation of Windows.
>
>Hoping I get some suggestions soon before something
>worse happens. Thanx in advance.
>
>Regards,

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