Computer won't power up with hard drive attached?

[tanyaec1]

OK.. this is the problem I am having. Was working on my computer... (WinXP). The computer froze.. re-started... (I DID turn off in the middle of "dump&quot. Anyway... restarted.. no hard drive. Restarted again.. no power to the motherboard. The ONLY way motherboard will "power" is if the hard drive is NOT attached. Wrote all this off to coincidence... hard drive failure.. D(*% it!
Forward in time.. two weeks. My best friend's computer.. same thing... just quit in the middle of the night.. restarts.. no power. remove hard drive.. power.
Forward in time... one week. My mother's computer.. Not used in three days.. goes to turn it on... no hard drive. Restarts... no power.

This cannot be coincidence... Anybody know of a virus maybe that would do this? Any suggestions on how to get it stopped? Now starting to think it is just a matter of time till this NEW drive of mine will have the same thing happen?!?!

Any suggestions?

 

[BlinkingLeaf]

I experienced something like that a while back (when I was using windows ME)a couple of times. And once with XP but it rebooted just fine, so maybe it's a bug in the system or something. I don't think it is a virus but since I'm not sure, who knows.
The safest bet though would be to contact Microsoft and see if they would know the cause, if not they would probably find out quickly.

 

[Grenage]

Probably coincidence.

 

[switchoff]

are all there off the shelf systems or did u or someone build them?

 

[tanyaec1]

One is a "built" - WinXP Pro, one is Compaq WinXP Home, one is Gateway WinME. Different systems, different homes, different setups.. ;-)