HELP! PC hangs straight after power on, can't restart!

[Happyhannah]

Okay,

I've just put a new hard drive in my computer and re-installed Windows XP. The PC was a Medion shop-bought one (about 2 years old) complete with software, so Windows is specific to this machine.

I had no problems with installation and it worked fine a couple of times since then, until yesterday.

I turned the computer on and it started the POST, then hung on the BIOS startup screen (just as the "Press F1 to enter Setup" appeared). When this happened I couldn't even reboot it, the power button had no effect... I had to turn off the power button on the PSU. After waiting a while I tried again and it worked fine! This has been happening at random intervals since. There are no other problems - once it boots, everything is fine.

Any ideas what is causing this?

Spec: Pentium 2.6GHz processor, 512 RAM, Windows XP, DVD ROM, DVD RW, Radeon 9600TX graphics, 250GB Sony HDD, 250W Fortron/Source PSU (Basically just as it was in the shop, except for the hard drive)


Oh, one other thing: there was a thunderstorm yesterday... the computer may have been switched on at the time (I wasn't here) but there was no power cut. Not sure if there was a power surge, though

Please help!

 

[Priapus]

That's a very strange one.

Could check everything inside the pc, maybe something is a little loose, and causing this?

 

[Ed]

I would check that the IDE and power cable is seated correctly on the hard drive. It almost certainly has to be responsible if it worked reliably until you changed the HD.

 

[Happyhannah]

Thanks

I've checked and rechecked all the connections inside and I'm sure they're okay. I talked to a friend of mine who said that the power-switch-not-working thing sounded like a problem he had when his PSU got fried. I don't know of any way to test this as the problem is random, so I might have to just put a new PSU in and see if it helps.