Mike,
Since the reset button works sporatically, I am assuming that you have a
MoBo with an ATX power supply.  If the PC is two or more years old, I would
suspect
that  the power supply is going bad.  I have had one power supply fail in
the
first year of operation.  The fact that the PC booted when you disconnected
the CD drives seems to support this diagnosis since you removed two sources
of power drain from the power supply.  Also, when the power supply is
"cold", it will often boot the system, but fails as it warms up.  If you
have a spare power supply available or if you can borrow one, try replacing
the power supply.  They are relatively inexpensive, and you will eventually
find a use for it anyway.
Jerry Rasmussen

==========================================
Mike McIntosh wrote:

> My PC suddenly will not boot. It worked fine for my brother earlier in the
day.
> The power and drive lights come on, the fans spin up, but there is no
video output
> and it never gets to the floppy drive. I unplugged it, removed the cover
and
> disconnected the power to my CD drives (one a reader, the other a burner)
and it
> booted. I reconnected the drives and it booted again, but after a few
minutes
> in Windows, the system froze, and would not reboot when the reset button
was
> pushed. It will not boot now, same symptoms as before (no video, but
power).

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