It is possible to check the voltages on the power supply using a volt meter. The power supply is supposed to be pushing out + 12, + 5, and 3 volts. It is good to have at least a 300 watt power supply (more is better). These days you can get a 400-600 watt power supply for about $30. It's worth it to uppgrade anyway, even if the power supply isn't the problem. Still could be the RAM. You can get a free RAM testing program at http://www.memtest86.com/. I also recommend that you make sure your BIOS is up to date. I had bought brand new RAM from kingston and even though it worked most of the time, the RAM was still bad. It crashed and a couple of times it failed to boot.
   I have never heard of a CPU slowing down on it's own, but a lot of the BIOS's out there can underclock (or overclock) the CPU, which can cause instability.
Other than all that I am at a loss.

John Brooks <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Thanks for the two responses I received. Unfortunately they didn't solve my problem.
After my original post the computer worked with no problems for 5 days, but today when it wouldn't boot up for a period of about two hours. At the moment it is working.
The boot order is CD, Floppy, then HD.
Replacing the battery made no difference.

One thing that puzzles me about this is that the PC doesn't seem to crash, shut down, or hang up. Instead it just seems to be operating but for some reason the boot process doesn't advance. I have also had two times when it quit working after Windows was loaded and working.

I am convinced that the problem is not related to the Windows OS because at times it will not even get as far along in the boot process as looking for a bootable CD or an operating system. Instead it shows the "Compaq Screen" for several minutes and the reboots itself. At other times it may start to load Windows and seems to be busy and doesn't gets beyond the WindowsXP Splash Screen. This splash screen shows the Windows Logo with a small bar type indicator that is constantly showing a motion from left to right but it doesn't go beyond this point.

It acts as if it is working slooowly. Is it possible that the processor is slowing down? That may sound crazy but that is the impression I get.

Another thought I have is some sort of a power supply problem. Can I check the power supply with an old inexpensive VOM meter? Probably not since I don't know what the proper voltages would be.

Any thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.

John Brooks
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