Thomas Mayer wrote:
> I really do not have a definitive answer for you, but here are a few 
> comments for what they are worth. Try pressing the DEL key as the 
> computer is starting. It may go to the BIOS before it becomes non 
> responsive. The power supply could be defective and only be supplying 
> power for the POST but not for the drives. The CMOS battery could need 
> to be replaced and with your setup, the default CMOS may be in conflict.
> 
> I hope this helps or at least leads to more ideas.

That sounds like a good trail to follow.  Not knowing what PSU size is 
installed in the machine makes it difficult to guess, but it's an SLI 
rig (2 power-hungry video cards) with 3 hard drives (nowhere near as 
power-hungry but still eating up 30-45W during boot).  I've had a system 
that worked fine here in my office (on good clean power) but failed 
after a day or two at the main office (on not-so-nice power).  In that 
case, upgrading from a marginal PSU to a slightly more powerful unit 
fixed the problem.

Other options would be to disconnect any external peripherals (USB 
scanners, printers, card readers).

And maybe pulling the power connectors off of the auxillary hard drives 
(the ones not needed for bootup).  Which might drop the load enough for 
the PSU to boot the system.

If it was a video card issue, the machine would probably make beeping 
noises (such as when I upgraded my video card last weekend and forgot to 
hook up the power connector on the video card).

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