Hugs and grapefruiTy kisses to everyone in the room
I am much happier now: I think it's the video card!
I pulled everything out of the box and powered it up; no go..
took out CMOS battery, moved the jumper over, tested the power supply with a little multimeter we have here; all good.. (machine was running)
Still red lights, but after turning it off, putting the processor back in, replaced CMOS battery, I turned it on, and -- beep beep beep x 8 = Hey, I have no video card!!
So I put the video card back in, and :O blah... Back to the 4 red lights and no beeps..
Took another 10 minutes with no video card in, to get it all reset again, and now it's beeping again
I think the card is shorted, which is triggering the power supply to quit, which takes a few minutes to reset. I have turne it on and off a few more times, and it seems to power up, beep 8 times, and sit there happily
So... The video card *did* give a hiccup a few months back, which took a number of reboots to get fixed, and I don't dare stick it in again.. So, if it continues to power up and beep-beep for the rest of the day, I vote for the video card being shot... I think my boyfriend-type fellow has a couple around, so might be back in service sooner than later!!
Thanks so much for your input here folks -- I may not have figured this out without your suggestions! And now, without further ado, let's not hijack the project any more
and I'll update when I get started again!
Sasha!
UPDATE: Good plan at '..snip the part out..' and here's some more to snip out: (hopefully it isn't a bad slot, but I don't think so) -- I swapped the memory and video card each into the other machine here, and both worked fine :/ however the equivalent parts from the other machine did not help my machine; further experimenting leads me to suspect the power supply. Among other symptoms, I can feel A.C. current leaking from the mosfet heatsinks in the power supply; surely that isn't normal..
I located a 430 watt (otherwise-OEM) new power supply for a steal and plan on having it here on Friday. Keep your fingers crossed for me people! (Incidentally I go in for minor surgery Friday, so may not be back here till saturday or so, providing the power supply solves the problem. If nothing else, I have a clean, tidy
inside-of-my-computer)