Hi Everyone:
Sorry, but I am new at this. I am having some weird problems with my computer and I have searched all over the net to find out what is wrong.

My computer is around 2 years old, and it has worked fine, until about a month now.
For some weird reason, it will not run right when it is cold. I turn it off at night for instance. And when I go to boot it up in the mornings. It will start with freezing up, and restarting, and it will come up with the blue screen that says system halted. It takes around 20 to 30 minutes for working with this thing to get it going. But it seems like once it warms up or whatever, it runs great. It also gives me a problem with trying to copy a cd. I can copy anything from my harddrive to the cdw. But it will not copy from the cdrom.

Ok, I have replaced the cdw. I have changed back and forth with the memory (512) I have unplugged everything and started with one at a time. I have changed the video card. I have taken the whole thing apart and cleaned it and all the fans, including the power supply. Which by the way also makes a noise for a while when it's cold. The main problem is that it is hard to find out what is going on, when the problem is only when it's cold.

My husband just ordered a power supply, but at this point I'm not sure what else to try. If any one could give me some ideas on what to try next or what could be going on. I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance. And sorry for such a long letter.

It might not be the fact that the processor is "cold" but maybe your thermal tape or paste that you have on your heatsink is worn off and the chip gets too hot when you try to boot.

What are the conditions that your computer is in. It could be the environment that it is in. But I think Joe is right.

Ok, LOL. Call me dumb. :o
But what and where is the heat sink and what can I do to fix it if anything.

the heatsink is located above the processor, usualy under a big fan. you can find it by looking at your mobo manual for exact location, or just look for giant peice of metal with fan strapped to top

Thanks, I found it. As I am sitting here with the sides off anyway. It has been sitting like this for a couple of days now. I was waiting till the power supply comes in. Hopefully tomorrow.

Now, can I just order this part and put it in. Or does it require a lot of work? From what I am looking at. It looks like it has some kind of clip behind it. I have worked on and rebuilt old computers before. But never had to work on this part.

Thank you.

what part the power suply or the heat sink? both are failry easy to remove, like all computer parts, its about learning the pressure required to take a part off. most fans and heatsinks come off with a little gruff because they are usualy strapped on pretty tight.

The power supply should be here tomorrow. I had a 300 watt. And with the fan on it making a weird noise when it was cold. I thought I might have too much for it to carry. So my husband ordered a 400 watt. But I've been looking at the heatsink thing and hopefully I can get him to order one of those for me tomorrow also. I guess the main thing I'm worried about is putting to much money into this computer and something ends up wrong with the motherboard.

look on your motherboard for something that either looks like this: http://www.joshwa1.pwp.blueyonder.co..._cpu_board.jpg or this: http://www.tweakers.net/ext/i.dsp/1046960112.jpg or anything similar, that is your heatsink

Just curious... what type of chip is that? Is it recent? Last time I saw a passive heatsink was on an old Pentium chip that I had, and it didn't look like that...