computer reset problems

Hi
I've got a problem with my computer I'm wondering if anyone has any idea what could be causing it. The problem started when I replaced my ATI Radeon 9000 for Radeon 9550. I am running Windows XP professional. When I boot the computer I can go into the BIOS, MS-DOS (via boot disk), onto the boot menu and into all safe modes just fine. However whenever I try to boot normally most of the time the computer gets to the point just where it shows the graphic Windows XP screen and the computer switches itself off. The only thing that is on is the yellow light on the motherboard. I then have to hold the power button in for about 30 secs to make the yellow light go out and turn it back on. When turning back on Windows XP warns me that something stopped it from booting up and gives me the options of the safe modes, system restore and normal booting (default). I've tried system restore and that doesn't seem to make any difference. Sometimes after the reboot it will let me into XP other times it will do the same trick, and it can sometimes take up to 10 attempts to gain access to XP.

My system spec is as follows.
AMD Athlon 1900 XP (with ThermalTake fan suitable for up AMD 3500)
512mb DIMM memory
BT Voyager wireless network card
RealMagic Hollywood Plus DVD MPEG Decoder
WinTV Theatre
Philips Aurilium 5.1 sound card (connected digitally to Kenwood 5.1 digital decoder)
Connect3D ATI Radeon 9550 with 256Mb DDR memory AGP
Gigabyte G7 3AX motherboard
300w power supply

The graphics card I used to have in the system before these problems was an ATI Radeon 9000 with 128Mb DDR memory (also AGP).

Once the computers up and running with Windows XP it runs fine, it just seems to be a slight problem with the boot screen. At the moment I'm wondering with or not Windows is using the old 9000 drivers for the boot section and switching to the 9550's when it gets into Windows and that's what's causing the confusion. I'm thinking of changing boot.ini to either add the /basevideo or /noguiboot to see it that will fix it, or just re-install XP.

Any help would be greatly apprieciated.

 

In safe mode the vga driver is disabled thats why it works.My guess is you havn't uninstalled your old drivers.boot in safe mode go to add remove prog remove ati driver,restart let win install standard vga adapter then install the driver that came with the card or download the latest driver from ati.

 

ok just re-installed the drivers for my video card and now I have an even bigger problem. That was minor 'cos my PC worked. Now my PC won't even boot it lights up for about a second and then goes straight to a yellow light on the motherboard, I presume there was something wrong with my system and by changing the video drivers it's agitated a bit more. It's now not even getting enough time to give power to anything, hard drives, etc only enough to give some power to the illuminated fan on the side and then nothing. I've just tried the PSU in a different machine and tried it with a different video card. The PSU works fine in a different machine, so that rules the PSU out. I've changed the video card with another one I had lying around and it's still dead. Also tried changing the memory - dead, tried taking the CPU out and checking it's all ok, still dead (I can't test with a different CPU as the other computer only has a Cyrix 333 and I don't think they're compatible with AMD Athlon Socket motherboards). Anyone got any idea what could have gone wrong now? The motherboard I've got is a Gigabyte GA-7VAX. I might try replacing the BIOS as it has DualBIOS in case the BIOS gets corrupt. Do you think the BIOS could be corrupt or do you think it's more serious than that? I remember last time this happened the PC PSU had blown but this hasn't happened this time.

 

The gfx card drivers only come into play when the logo screen appears until then your comp doesnt care what gfx card driver you have it doesnt affect the mobo which sounds like the prob your describing and the odds of it going at the exact same time you installed the drivers are slim.

Were you letting your comp restart normally?Or just pressing the power or reset button?

You could try resetting the cmos jumper,using that dual bios thingy you said there is no more serious prob than a corrupt bios its an RMA and you just prey they give you a fresh one.

Also another likely prob is your harddrive has died so unplug it and try and boot,a hd I had took out 2 new mobos before finding it.

 

I was lettng the comp restart normally. I've tried resetting the CMOS on my Gigabyte board (to reset the CMOS according to the manual I had to remove the battery for 30 secs.). I've also tried booting with no hard drive plugged in (I've tried booting with just CPU, RAM, fan & video card connected and still nothing). I think I'll go to Bowlers tommorow and see if I can pick up a cheap motherboard so I can see if the m/b's blown. When the motherboard powers down the only light that stays on is the RAM led.