My tale is a bit long winded, but I don't want to leave out any part since I am honestly stumped. I'll just start off with system specs:

Asus A7N8X-X MOBO
AMD 2600+
1gb DDR400 RAM (2 512 sticks)
320gb Barracuda
200gb Barracuda
80gb Barracuda
Seagate Smartpower 2.0 550W
Leadtek Geforce 6800xt
Leadtek Winfast TV tuner card (2000xp FM I think)
Soundblaster Audigy 4

All parts are at least 6 months old.

Now for the story. My system was running fine untill I installed teh drivers for my tuner card. After that, Explorer started behaving erratically and crashing. I don't know if this is related or just a coincidence.

Earlier tonight I was just using my PC, when explorer crashed. No biggie. But when I tried to bring up Task Manager, there was no response (mouse was still working). I hit the reset button and waited to boot. After the XP loading screen (the one with the logo and the little blue bar at the bottom) the screen went black, and nothing happened. I tried again, and tried it in safe mode but with no luck. By this point I figured I'd just fuxxed my install, so I grabbed my trusty WinXP slipstream DVD and get cracking.

The installer ran fine until it finished caching files/drivers and got to that "Setup is starting windwos installation" message at the bottom, but nothing happened. It sat there on that blue screen for quite some time. I tried it with 2 other slipstream DVD's and the original XP CD. When this failed, I tried to install to each hard drive, with just one plugged in at a time but had the same problem.

I then tried to boot off the Windows BART PT disk, but it didn't progress past the load screen. I then tried previous methods with only one stick of RAM in, then with the other in. Again, no luck. I then tried a Knoppix bootable CD. The thing was going fine till it tried to get an IP from the network card via DHCP. The system stopped responding at this point.

I tried booting with the onboard network disabled. Tried removing the tuner card. Tried booting with just Mobo, video card and HDD. I checked the caps on the motherboard, they all seemed fine (I may have missed one though). I'm guessing that only leaves the PSU. No other possible combination of hardware configuration solved the problem.

So there you have it. I'm guessing the PSU is the problem. I'd love to get a second opinion though. Any _constructive_ advice or help would be greatly appreciated. I'll buy whoever solve the problem a beer :P

lmao

Ugh, accidentaly made a blank post to begin with. Be nice to me, I'm reduced to using a P3 667mhz with 256mb of ram, MX440 and a 10gb HDD... CRY FOR ME!

If your near CA tomorrow after 10:30, bring the PSU in an I'll either confirm that the PSU is dead/flaky or not, if it is well, you'll be in the right place to get a new one :) Just ask for Hermie

a) Where is CA? and B)Do I need to bring my own knife?

:D

CA = Computer Alliance @ 1517 Logan Rd Mt Gravatt

Do I need to bring my own knife?

Nah, metal and electrical devices don't mix a that well ;)

I managed to borrow a spare PSU off a flatmate, but still had the same problem :(

sounds like mobo is had it

another vote for the 'ten bucks its the mobo' choice.

Well I stayed up till 5 completely removing everything and putting it back in again, and it miraculously booted. I think I'll have to put money on the mobo too. My PCI devices keep reinstalling every time I restart :(

Thanks for help y'all :D

Leadtek Winfast TV tuner card (2000xp FM I think)

My system was running fine untill I installed teh drivers for my tuner card.

Oh dear.
Worst.
Drivers.
Ever.

I had this card and the drivers that came with it on the cd were shocking, the ones on the web site worked fine eventually but it was a huge f*** around. Heaps of people had the same problem too.

can't be the A7N8X-X, i've got two and they run solid to this day...

Yeah I was a mazed to find a company with worse drivers and software than Creative : /

i have A7N8X-X and running fine....

This sounds weird, but i have had a few computers home and work that were running real weird with weird and random problems... What i did is give a good clean and removed all the dust... and for some weird amazement didnt have any problems....