Weird Hardware Issue

I'm someone here can throw some light on a problem my uncle is experiencing...

His PC, based around an Abit TH7-II motherboard, works fine for a few days and then it refuses to boot, or it freezes in Windows XP. I've taken the usual steps of reseating everything and updating the BIOS. All fans are working, and the reported temps are fine. Whenever I leave his after tinkering, everything is working. Days later, I get a call saying that the PC is "beeping" again.

I'd almost prefer it if the thing just refused to work! Working intermittently makes it hard to track down. If a piece of hardware was faulty, I'd just expect it to not work at all. The BIOS POST codes don't help much either, as it changes.

I got him to perform MemTest on his RAM, and it passed. I don't know what else to suggest or try.

Any ideas? I'm at a loss...

G/F's PC has the 'random freezing' problem, too.

I want to change the hard drive but she won't let me cos she doesn't wanna reinstall everything. Already tried changing the graphics card, CPU and RAM, and tried disconnecting the two optical drives on IDE1.

Faulty power button?
http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=79815

Although, it could be a crack in the mobo, randomly freezing as it expands with the heat. Costly and time consumingto test though, unless you have the right spare parts.

More likely:
Could be a failing hard drive.
Could be a failing power supply.
Could be a failing video card.

Less likely:
Could be a failing motherboard.
Could be a failing CPU.

Gfk:
You can change a hard drive without reinstalling everything. I've done it. I think you need to install windows on the blank drive first, and then get into DOS and copy everything over that install. Then you may need to do a repair install on top of that. It's a big pain in the ass, but you won't have to reinstall your apps. I think.

There's also the remote possibility that the mobo is shorting out on the case.

1) Change the various signal and power cables inside the computer.

2) Change the power supply. They do tend to loose their characteristics quite a lot with the passage of time

Barney

I must say the PSU sounds the most likely candidate. I had one that used to go nuts after a while. It ended up frying most of the components.

Thanks all for the suggestions. I'll try swapping out the PSU.

Cheers

Leigh Bowers. Why is that name familiar to me?! Hmmm.

Thats one way, although i prefer the approach of making an HDD image and then using a partitioner to resize the partition after the image is loaded. Lot less work. ;)

Do I know you big10p?

Unlikely, I just seem to recognize the name from somewhere.