Ok..sorry to be unclear if it seems so..
System p3 550mhz 128meg

System overheated one night and did an autoshutdown. Now when attempting to boot, It goes through its normal routine until after about 5-10 seconds the display shuts down. During post it finds all installed components and the video card is functional, as I can see the post activity. Always the video signal will cease (Even when booting from a cd or floppy) - Needless to say this makes troubleshooting problematic. When said video signal stops, the HD light stays on, and there is no boot sequence. All fans appear to be functional, but one further strange thing is that I find it impossible to turn off the machine after attempting to boot. Could this be a power supply failure related to the overheat I experienced? Any help is appreciated, as Im hoping I dont have to rebuild this machine from the ground up.

First, open the case and clean out all the dust. Use compressed air in a can, I use a small soft camera brush. Make sure to clean all the dust off the fan and heatsink, and check the video card. Boot the machine with the case off, and CAREFULLY check to see if the video card chips or CPU heatsink is hot to the touch. If you can't hold your finger on it for 10 seconds, it's too hot.

Did you have any storms involving lightning, or power surges? That could have damaged small internal components, and either the video card or motherboard is slowly giving up. Hopefully the video card, it's cheaper and easier to replace...

Maybe some other folks will have more ideas.



------------------
Soon as I come up with all the answers...they change the questions!!

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

I know the video card is good, as I have tried 2 and the monitor will display all post information, until it gets to the "please wait" just before as OS load. It is at this point that the machine simply stops responding. Monitor goes blank, HD light stays on and machine cannot be powered down, without disconnecting the cable. I have not done the cleaning as suggested yet, but I do know that nothing is running hot from previous tries. --- Sounds bad http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif

Gonna try to get a power supply today to try it, but I'm beginning to think it might be something more insidious. If anyone has any further suggestions, please let me know.

I think you're on the right track, power supply would be very likely.

I wondered about heat affecting the video card not because of it being bad, but getting hot due to dust, which impedes airflow needed for cooling.

------------------
Soon as I come up with all the answers...they change the questions!!

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

Mrthermos,
I had a similar problem. I overclocked a system of mine and didn't take any extra precautions to keep things cool. About two weeks later when I went to boot up things seemed to appear ok but within 30 to 40 seconds later it would just shutdown. Well after trouble shooting for several hours I finally tried putting the CPU on another mobo and it did the same thing.
I'm guessing the CPU chip got so hot that it stopped working properly. I guess I should just be happy it didn't ruin my mobo. Unless you have another mobo to try the CPU in I would go with your other ideas first, since replacing a processor isn't cheap.
WarHog