Al,

Very interesting.  I just went through this very same scenario with my
girlfriend's PC, which is also a Systemax.  Occasionally, it would hang just
as you described and subsequently not restart, and other times it would not
restart after a clean power-off.  By not restart, I mean the power supply
and fans would run, but the machine would not go through the POST, and there
wasn't any video output.
First check to see what mainboard you have.  My guess it is an MSI, perhaps
a MS-6340.  The bottom line with this machine was that the board was bad.
Apparently, this is a fairly common problem, as evidenced by the myriad of
postings on the forum at the MSI site.  Prior to condemning the mobo, I
removed all cards, IDE and floppy cables from it to see if it would POST,
with no success.  I then cleared the CMOS and replaced the BIOS chip, as I
was unable to flash it since the machine  wouldn't even seek a floppy disk.
After this, it POSTed fine, but within 2 weeks, the same problem occurred.
At this point, I was able to get it running again by pulling the processor
(Duron 750 MHz) out of the socket and reinstalling it.  Again, it was back
up for a few weeks, only to die once more.  This time, nothing got it going,
including trying a known good processor out of another machine.  It was then
that I was confident in condemning the board, and replaced it with a Soyo
K7VTA Pro, which has been running beautifully ever since.
BTW, the clear CMOS jumper on the 6340 is labeled JBAT1, and shorting pins
2-3 clears it.
Hope this helps.  Let me know it you have any further questions.  Good luck.

Best regards,

George


----- Original Message -----


> I have a Systemax PC and have not added any hardware.  Recently I was
> trying to download some software overnight and it was still hanging in
> the morning.  I completely turned the Computer off and over a few days
> my PC had trouble booting.  Now it does not boot at all.  I turn the
> machine on, it is getting power, the hard drive seems to start searching
> for the operating system, and it does nothing.  My monitor shows no
> indication of the PC loading Win 98 or anything for that matter but it
> is working.  I tried to boot from the floppy drive although the system
> upon boot does not check this drive for an operating system although it
> has in the past???
>
> My guess is that I need to reset the CMOS (I am pretty good with PC's,
> at least I think I am) but cannot find the jumper on the Motherboard.
> Systemax support is only available if I am under warranty and I am not.
> Their only other option is a very expensive pay by the minute option.
> Any help would be appreciated.

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