Well...Scotch,
I think you're on the right track, except that I would probably start with the power supply first. They can be purchased cheaply and an upgrade in size to around 400 watts can normally improve many machines. Next, I replace motherboard and processor since it appears like heat issues may have damaged them.
Hope this helps.
Grif
Hello,..I hope that there is a kind genius out there who is willing to help me figure this box out........ I
need some help to point me in the right direction, I am ready to pull out my hair, what should I try
next? I have a compaq5000us desk top with 3 - 128mb sticks of ram, athlon 1.4 socket 462
processor, + 60 gig hd. The computer continuously freezes or locks up, the mouse and keyboard
both freeze. After it freezes it will only boot to a pure black screen. I found that the processor's fan
was bad (not running) and replaced it hoping it would solve these issues but no such luck. I installed
a fresh operating system ( Windows ME ), first with a Windows disk ( I did'nt want to load all of the
extra Compaq crap) but the problems persisted, so I formatted and reinstalled ME with the Compaq
restore disks and the computer was also flashed with the latest bios update. I replaced the video
card with the same brand and model because after it freezes it will only boot to a pure black screen
with no prompts or anything, this did not help 
. After it freezes it will only boot to the black screen
no matter how many times it is booted. I do not think the vid card or it's drivers are at fault, the
restore disks should have loaded the proper drivers for the card and I tried other drivers from the
Nivida site with no improvements. If i wait several hours it "May" boot to a screen or windows if I
am lucky. While booting to the all black screen I can hear the computer posting and loading
windows, so I now thinking it must be either the processor: ( it did have a bad fan after all ), or the
power supply?? or lastly the mother board itself. I can trick the computer to a "working monitor
picture" and access the bios after a freeze up if I unplug the hard drive cable while booting (so the
bios does not see the HD while booting), I then have a monitor screen but can only access the bios
for a limited time (5 or so minutes) before it will freeze up again. It will freeze with or without the HD
connected so I don't think that the HD is bad. I also tried running the compaq diagnostics disk but
the computer will freeze before finishing, it did make it about 90% through the tests and found no
errors up to that point, memory tested ok with the disk. This is becoming Very frustrating. Do you
thing it would be the motherboard causing this issue?, power supply?, bad processor? bad Hard
drive? I will buy parts "one by one" until I get this figured out but which part should I try next?? I am
leaning twords the motherboard as the first suspect, power supply would be my #2 suspect, but
what do I know?? Any help or sugestions by you smart computer tecs as to which part to try next
would be greatly appreciated.
Chowhound
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