OS: Win ME

I'm working on an old machine that will usually boot up with no problem. Windows launches and everything works fine. But then for no apparent reason it won't boot at all. The fan starts, the power light comes on, the light by the reset button comes on and the light on the CD-ROM blinks. But I have nothing on screen--no BIOS info or anything. I don't hear any disk activity or beeps. Where do I start to diagnose this?

Thanks,
Relztrah

I actually had the same thing happen a couple of years ago. The computer would sometimes refuse to boot up, until finally it would no longer start at all. It turns out there was a bad power supply combined with a busted CPU fan which eventually fried everything. I'd check the PSU and cooling first, and possibly replace them if needed...

I'm working on an old machineI think I would start with a fresh battery on the motherboard...

I have one that does the same thing, usually I have to reseat video and/or RAM to get it to boot again. I keep hoping one day I'll reseat them enough to clean up the contacts, but so far it's kept doing it for 6 months...works great when it works, aggravating when it doesn't. I don't even bother to bolt the case cover on anymore, (it's a desktop, not tower) I just leave it loose for easy access...I've swapped out everything but the power LED, (literally), no matter what CPU, hard drive, video card, RAM chips or power supply I use, it still does the same thing. Even tried it all in a different case, same thing...But runs perfect once it does boot up, and the OS makes no difference either, it's a dual boot Win98/Linux machine. Both run fine, never a minute's trouble with either OS.

Try reseating everything a few times, and try different RAM and video card.

I replaced the video card becuase I was getting symptoms of it failing anyway, and that seems to have taken care of the problem. The video card never would have been one of my usual suspect, but you never know. I'm going to leave the battery in there since the time and date are correct. Thanks for the input.

Relztrah