Some help w/ my PC?!

[rwc]

Ok...I'm looking for some ideas here..maybe somebody can help me?

First a little background...my C:\ drive died this past weekend, so I replaced my PATA c:\ drive with a SATA drive.

I now have an Intel D865PERL motherboard w/ a P4 2.8Ghz CPU, 1 Gig Ram, 2 SATA drives, and a Sony DVD drive/burner

The BIOS recognizes all the hardware fine (so that's good)...

IF the computer boots, it seems to run consistently (I've had it running for 2 hrs so far), but if I hit restart the computer (either via Windows XP or the power button) it wont come up. I see the POST stuff just fine, and I can get into the BIOS...but BEFORE the drive boots, I just get a black screen (no POST beeping, etc).

If I wait a while (30 minutes or longer) the computer will boot fine.

I was thinking maybe something is overheating--but wouldn't that turn off the computer while it was booted, rather than not letting me boot at all?

Is my motherboard fried? Bad disk controller? Gremlins?

Any ideas are appreciated!

thanks,

rwc

[teknubic]

30 minutes is a long time to find a bootable OS. Maybe go into bios and move the SATA item up to the top of the boot priority. Take out any floppies or CDs, etc.
Is this a restored image of your old primary hard-drive? If so, what program did you use? You may also consider doing a fresh install. If your restored OS has all different hardware to negotiate, it could be the source of your long boot time.
HTH