Crusty

So far, so good . . Just to let you guys know that everything seems to be in order. The machine booted right up this morning, so go figure. However, before switching off last night I had to download and install service pack 1 for Vista. Might that have anything to do with all of this? Who knows? In the meantime, I am happy that it's working fine.

A twist in the tale . . . I spoke to some of the techies at work today and they suggested that I pull out the mother board battery and put in a new one. Well, I have done exactly that and now the **** thing has started right up. I had to go back into the bios and configure it for raid, so I hope that everything will be fine after that. And after everythings got so desperate last night that I did the unthinkable and consulted the ASUS motherboard manual, let's hope it keeps working. Anyway, watch this space. I'll definitely be making a contribution to your cause. Thanks, Fellas! (for now . . )

The power supply must be okay as all the fans in the box are operating, including the one on the cpu. I'm beginning to wonder what £1,500 worth of cumputer hardware is going to sound like when it crashes to the pavement below.:mad:

Hope this isn't a double post . . Hmm . . thought I repsonded, but my post doesn't show. Anyway, It is the straight up P5E3 board. The user's guide says so. :)

searching . . . That is the motherboard you posted the picture of. However, I am not sure which number exactly on the motherboard is the model number - there are a few different ones. As for the RAM, it is as listed at the start of the thread. There is an obvious sticker on the side of the stick that confirms it, ;) I have tried to start it with out anything attached to it. There is no printer, or anything like that. It still will not work. As for the CMOS stuff, I am going to have to pinch my nose and hold my breath because that is where I start getting in over my head.

Hey there, Wolfeymole . . . Yep. That looks like the very same mother board. Is that good or bad?:confused:

Thanks, Wrydlight. I've got two one gig sticks of ddr3, is it possible that they are both defective? As mentioned above, I took out each and replaced singly in turn, but still the same situation. Could it be that simple? What are the chances of getting two bad sticks of ram in one go?

Hi, JEBWrench. Did as you said and still the same symptoms - the hard disks sound like they are beginning to kick over and boot but then stop. The only sound is from the graphics card fan.

Hello, Seth! Thanks for the reply. The cpu and video card heat sinks are not hot to the touch. I completely removed the graphics card and nothing happened. I am assuming the motherboard has on board video as it does have on board 5.1 sound. Frustrating, as you can imagine. What else can I try?

Where to begin? This has been a bit of nightmare for me - new PC with lots of goodies, but it keeps crapping out after a few weeks of operation. This is all the stuff in the system: 3xWestern Digital 500GB Caviar SE16 SATA II 300 7200rpm 16MB cache Hard Disk Drive Coolermaster PSU Real Power Pro 520 520W OCZ 2GB Kit (2x1024) Gold Edition Memory DDR3 1066MHz PC3-8500 CL 7-7-7-21 Dual Channel Gold Layered XTC Heatspreader XFX GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB DDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray & HD Combi drive Black SATA Retail (Blu-Ray & HD player - DVD rewriter) Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000 USB - Silver Coolermaster CM Stacker 832 Black midi tower case full aluminium Asus motherboard P5E3 LGA775 Intel X38 DDR3 ATX Intel CPU Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 95W Energy Efficient 2.4GHz SLACR G0 Stepping I am running Vista Ulimate and the disks are set up in a raid array. The problem: the system seems to lock up and then will not reboot. The only sound from the machine is the fan on graphics card whizzing about at top speeds. There is nothing on the monitor and I can not manage to get into the start up/bios menus. The friend who originally helped me choose the components and helped me build it, corrected the problem before by flashing the bios. For someone like me, that is a scary propsect. What can I do? What should I do? Thanks in advance.