I just got this pc computer for free off of CL. Its ridiculous, it had no hard drive in it. It was a case with 3 colored flashing lights: 2 in the front and one black light on the inside. It has a dvd burner, cd, burner, and an asus motherboard 2.4 g and a gig of memory. The model # is p4s8x-x. I threw a 10GB hard drive I had hanging around and installed windows on it.

The thing booted up with no issues. However, sometimes it doesn't boot! If I reboot it it boots again with a beep. Half the time it freezes when I try to start it up and doesn't beep (like the mobo is dead or something). The other half the time it works fine. All of the disc drives work on it and it runs XP very well. Does anyone have an idea what the problem could be here? The thing reeks of cigarettes, yet the inside looks entirely clean. There are a bunch of fans in there and a temperature meter. Perhaps this is why there is very little dust/cigarette tar.

btw....I was thinking the problem is either a corrupted bios or a messed up motherboard. This seems questionable since it boots about 50% of the time though. I don't get it....Also the power is absolutely fine and it is definitely not a power supply issue. Power runs through the motherboard fine, it just doesnt boot. Im looking to fix this mobo...otherwise its a nice case with free drives if anything

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the power supply. Your described symptoms often happen with a bad power supply.

Other things to check for are burst/leaking capacitors on the motherboard near the cpu.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

hmmmm the thing stays on forever though.....never shuts off or freezes or anything like that. One thing worth noting is that one of the lights in the front flickers, which could be the result of a weak power supply??? or more likely the light is just burnt out... I looked quickly at the capacitors and didnt notice anything. It needs a better look when im not drunk though.......

Open the power supply and check the capacitors there too. Also if the capacitors are standing off the board a bit its likely they are exploding from underneath. Sounds extraordinarily like bad caps...

I work in computer services and it feels great to take a brand new motherboard out of a box, only to find that the capacitors exploded on it while it sat. We call it motherboard Frisbee, as we promptly pitch the piece of crap in the dumpster...

Always go with the cheapest and most simple answer first. In this case, the power supply.

JMHO, though.