As the title tells it...

My main PC doesn't want to play ball this morning (typing this on a laptop).

Halfway through the startup procedure, it switches itself off.

It will start up in safe mode though.

Sorry to be a pest folks, but can anyone suggest anything before I take it to a shop?

(1st time experiencing this. Haven't done anything new to it/no new software/hardware recently.)


Rich :(

Rich

Sounds like one of the drivers for a card is currupt. easiest way to find out what it it,, is to remove all you card except the graphics card and see what happens. If it goes through ok, start adding them back in until is goes wrong. Chances are that you woul donly need to reinstal the driver for the card that causes the problem. IF that fails, you could boot up in safe mode then delete most things from the device manager, when you restart it will detect it all again, this may sort it out. Just some ideas.

Scoobs

Wow! Thanks for that ultra quick reponse Scoobs.

Largely because of your suggestion, I powered down, removed the multitude of cables from the back of the PC, opened it up and removed as much of the built up dust as possible.

I then reconnected screen, keyboard and mouse only (still leaving the majority of devices unconnected) and powered up again.

Hey-Presto it's back!

Anyway, I'm sure I haven't found the problem yet, but I will.

Far too much stuff connected to and running on this PC (some of which is business critical.)
Wake-up call - time to spread some of this PC's workload to other machines on our network.

Thanks again mate. (owe you a beer)

Rich :)

I don't think this is directly related to you but, when i bought
my PC it was firing up and then instantly dying.

The problem was that the PIII chip was not plugged in fully!!
Monkeys at Gateway :rolleyes: :D