Unusual system stability problem

[Gomer]

This is regarding an old AMD 450 MHZ system with a healthy chunk of RAM, Viper V770 video, ASUS P5A mobo (I think) W98, old crap monitor and other misc equipment that I do not think is relevant.

My girlfriend uses this system for misc. student tasks (word, excel, kazaa, winamp etc). For some reason it has become very unstable. I have two suspects.

When I say unstable the thing locks solid at random times. Also it will not boot on occasion. It will take several hard resets to get it to boot. At the times it does not boot, the power supply and HD spins up, but the monitor does not come out of standby. The speaker is not functioning so I cannot tell if the system is POSTing or not.

This system is rock solid when I bring it back to my place to work on it (without the monitor). I suspect one of two things is causing her problems at her place. Either dirty power from the wall, or somehow the monitor is doing it. My main question is regarding the monitor... can a troubled monitor cause a system to lock up? I think she had similar problems at her previous place of residence but not as severe, so I am leaning away from the dirty power theory.

If anyone can shed some light on this I would appreciate it.

BTW, system is clean from a virus, spyware, OS, browser etc. standpoint... like I said, it is rock solid here without that monitor

[jmichna]

Monitor should have zero effect on a system's ability to boot. What happens if you use your (good) monitor at her location? Also, the converse... her monitor and PC at your location? That would rule out dirty power. Some older systems had a socket on the power supply that you could plug your monitor into (rather than plugging the monitor into a wall socket)... is she doing this? Maybe her monitor-to-pc video cable is bad?

Ordinarily, with the types of problems you describe I'd look at the motherboard for leaking/bulging capacitors. Also, try different stick of ram (I had a K6-II 400/PCChips mobo combo that was sensitive to borderline ram). The monitor situation makes this unusual.

[Gomer]

Monitor should have zero effect on a system's ability to boot.

I think it may be booting, but the monitor is not coming out of standby... so she doesn't think it is booting.

She is an hour away... hauling 17" monitors around is tedious business, moreso than ATX cases.

I tortured her system the last couple of days and it didn't blink. I also sent her home with an old 15" monitor to see how that works for her.

Thanks for the input tho... if it is the monitor it would have been something I never expected. But that's how we learn =)

[Gomer]

Powerstrip was the culprit. How is that for an unusual cause?

All is well now.

[OuTpaTienT]

Cool, we solved another one. Good job.