Quoting: art b
could the drive be fitted to another machine....? it has a few hundred songs and pics on it
Yep, however, the machine is quite old and has a IDE harddrive judging by the cable attached to it which means it will only be read either by an equally old machine OR a modern rig (which runs SATA) with a good motherboard - the main drive will be SATA but the good motherboard will have an IDE connection where you can just plug in the drive. It will just appear as a new harddisk under 'My Computer'.
Doing this will elimnate the harddrive from the equation..
It may be faulty memory, try taking out one stick after the other (looks like all four slots are used). - Another thing eliminated..
Next could be the CPU fan has come loose - when you first turn on your rig, any rig, you will hear a burst of fan speed for 2 seconds, then it will return to normal running - usually right around the time of the 'check beep'. This is actually the system purposly sending informaiton to the CPU to heat it up to check if the fan is opertating normally. If the fan is not connected properly (even if one prong is out) the CPU will over heat and the Motherboard will shut it down to prevent damage. Check and elimanate.
Next could be a faulty motherboard - just buy a new rig and plug the old harddisk in as a second harddisk to access as extra storage and to recover old useful
porn files.
Couple of things there for you..