Computer help?

[Minus;]

I had an old pentium 4 dell dimension 2350 with 768 mb of ram, and before I would use ubuntu/puppy linux on it, and I hadn't used it in a good while because my sister took my monitor well after 3 ish months i got it back and it will go up to grub and then when i try to boot i will hear the hard drive start to spin and then it will just reboot, and go into an infinite reboot cycle. I figured grub was messed up or something so i'd try live cd boot, and it does the same thing when i try to boot into a live cd! I reset the bios, opened the computer unplugged and replugged everything, made sure the ram was seated properly, tried it with single sticks of ram at a time. And still keeps rebooting. The fan is spinning fine, I ran a memory check and it was fine, the drive diagnostics say the hard drive is okay, and I don't know what else to check...any help?

[?????]

Nothing was changed to the computer right? Just the monitor was taken from you?

Also is Linux the only OS on this computer? Can you post your menu.lst or grub.conf... I forget what it's called. Whatever the file is that controls GRUB's menu.

According to this: http://newyork.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1360234
Dell utilities might overwrite the MBR, which could be the cause of your problem.

[Minus;]

Nothing was changed to the computer right? Just the monitor was taken from you?

Also is Linux the only OS on this computer? Can you post your grub.conf?

Can't post shit, now i'm getting inconsistent boots. It will get to the boot menu, then it won't. Then it will get a little past to where the kernel is loading then shut off. Yeah its puppy linux. And nothing at all was changed. Power supply maybe?

[?????]

I edited my last post have a look at it. So are you dual booting?

[Minus;]

No nevermind its just macpup which is a derivative of puppy linux.

[?????]

No nevermind its just macpup which is a derivative of puppy linux.

Could you try another liveCD? Is it possible for you to install Windows? In the link I gave the OP could boot into Windows just fine, but not Linux.

[Minus;]

OKAY progress. I don't know whats been happening but its having inconsistent boots. now its actually booting to the ubuntu loading screen?

[Minus;]

Could you try another liveCD? Is it possible for you to install Windows? In the link I gave the OP could boot into Windows just fine, but not Linux.

No i couldn't install windows either, and none of the live cd's run. But now its boot into the live cd with no problem!

[?????]

Did Ubuntu start up? Get your menu.lst or grub.conf thingers. Also what partitions do you have?

[Minus;]

Did Ubuntu start up? Get your menu.lst or grub.conf thingers. Also what partitions do you have?

Macpup still wasn't starting and none of my live discs were working. And ubuntu live cd randomly worked right now. But its getting very inconsistent boots. And at the moment its still in ubuntu live cd. Its grub .97 the partitions umm let me get that for you. But I don't get why it would ranomly change?

[Minus;]

DAMN it rebooted before i could get any of that for you. But it was in ubuntu on the live cd for a good 5 minutes. Now do you think its the power supply?

[?????]

Yeah it might be. I have to go so if you have anymore trouble try posting on linuxquestions.org

Try these links to find out
http://www.overclock.net/power-supplies/463954-how-tell-powersupply-dead.html
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic55506.html

[bluaki]

Completely sounds like power supply to me. Faulty power supply can interrupt the power flow momentarily, then boot again when power returns. Same thing happens to me for just one iteration when my entire house's power is lost for just a moment.

Could be motherboard or broken wires somewhere, but I think power supply is the most likely issue. Aside from visually examining the wires, I don't think there's any way to test that diagnosis until you replace the part.

In a possible case that the power supply just can't handle as much wattage as is connected to it, try disconnecting all unnecessary components from the power supply or using a lower-power video card if you have one.