help please

[BiggerThanJesus]

hey this is my first time here and my first post. im pretty much a newbie when it comes to computers but anyway, i have afew questions about some problems im having with my computer. 1 sometimes when i turn it on theres absolutely no video whatsoever. its working but no video so im thinking videocard perhaps ?? 2 when it does start up i have to have my windows disc in it or it will not start, some preboot screen comes up so i have to put in my windows disc then press enter then not press anything when it says "press any key to boot", suggestions ? 3 finally when i get to the desk top and start doing things my computer will just freeze then reset(this happens rarely).. anyways sorry for the long post, hopefully someone reads this , thanks for any anwsers !

 

[The_Other_One]

1) Unless you can confirm there's hard drive activity and such, it's probably a power supply or motherboard issue. It could even be other hardware; expansion cards, RAM...

2) Could be a boot order issue in the bios, or it could be a bad boot sector on your drive. I'd check the bios first. If the hard drive is on the list (and active) then you could try to fix your mbr.

http://askbobrankin.com/fix_mbr.html

3) Next time it occurs, get your computer running and check your event log. Right click My Computer, Manage, Event Viewer, and look for any problems (red exclamation marks) Probably software, but could also be hardware.