Question [Solved] Machine Won't Complete Boot or Load OS

[ImWolf]

MSI K9N Neo V2
AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+
4x DDR2 DIMM (8GB Total)
Sea Sonic SSR-550FX Focus PSU
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT
3x 500GB Sata HDD
C: NTFS (Windows and Programs)
D: Fat32 (Data Storage)
E: ext4 & NTFS (Linux + Grub Boot Menu)

Machine shut down while browsing yesterday, and at restart did not boot through POST. Tried this a couple times. After machine had sat for about 2 hours, it did boot past the Grub menu and started to load Windows, but then shut down again.

Over the past couple of weeks, I noted that on restart, Windows threw the blue ChkDsk screen up and wanted to check the E: drive. Then Windows proceeded to load normal. I saw this ChkDsk screen again yesterday after the machine had been off for about 2 hours. I've seen this 3 times now over many restarts, so it's not a constant.

So I opened the case to check things. All the fans are working, I don't see any blown cap's, and the cables for the drives were all properly connected. Next I disconnected the E: drive cables and rebooted. Again, it wouldn't make it through POST.

The machine behaves like something is quickly over heating, and I'm not sure of how to proceed with troubleshooting the problem from here.

Thanks for any input....
Wolf

 

[rgd1101]

how old are those hdd?
start by getting a new ssd

 

[ImWolf]

The HDD's I have are between 2 to 10 years old.

Anyway, stuck my hand back in the case to check cables again, brushed up against the CPU fan and it was completely loose. One of the plastic tabs that secure the clamp had broken off.

Luckily, I had another MSI board with the same socket, so I swapped out the plastic frames and the machine booted up and still running for 10 minutes now.

There still is something strange concerning the E: drive being scanned again at startup. That is a Hitachi Sata HDD and it's the newest of the 3.