HELP Comp shuts down while loading Windows

My computer:

Intel Pentium 4 1.80a Ghz
SOYO P4VDA Motherboard
256 RAM
RaidMax 350W Power Supply
GeForce 4 Ti4200
Western Digital 80 GB
16X DVD ROM
was running Windows 2000 Professional

The problem has somewhat evolved over time, so I shall describe what I have noticed.

I have had this computer since October of 2002, and everything had been more or less working fine. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the computer’s fans would sometimes stay on even though I had shut down Windows 2000.

One day, I could not turn it on, but had to switch off and on the switch on the power supply to get the main switch to work.

A couple of days later, it stopped working completely. It would load Windows 2000 until the loading bar reached full, then turn off suddenly. Sometimes the fans kept running. Here is what I have done to attempt to locate and fix the problem:

NOT the power supply… I bought and installed a new one
NOT the video card… switched with a known working one
NOT the hard drive or Windows… I reformatted the hard drive through another computer and tried to install Windows again

Now, it boots from the windows CD, and goes until it says Starting Windows 2000, then shuts off suddenly again.

So, that leaves motherboard, processor, or RAM.

I would really appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

(Just a side question… when I took off the processor, some of the themal stuff was stuck to the chip and some was stuck to the heat sink, is it supposed to be like that? If so, is it still usable like that?)

You may wish to reapply thermal compound to your processor before reinstalling the heatsink. It will probably work regardless of which side of the oreo the cream sticks to, however.

Try setting the FSB to a reduced setting, underclocking the proc and RAM. If it runs, then it's a heat-related problem or bad RAM. In fact, now that I'm thinking of it, I had a similar problem with 2000 and a PIII/SDRAM.

Quote:

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Originally posted by seraph
A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the computer’s fans would sometimes stay on even though I had shut down Windows 2000.

(Just a side question… when I took off the processor, some of the themal stuff was stuck to the chip and some was stuck to the heat sink, is it supposed to be like that? If so, is it still usable like that?)

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I trimmed the above, so as to reply to each of the above:

I don't understand the first paragraph. My computer fans run all the time, unless I shut off the power switch. Never heard of fans that would shut off when the OS was shut down.

Re the "thermal stuff". - If you don't do the "thermal stuff" right, you just might fry your CPU. You don't just "slap some on and let it go", it's much more critical than that.