My computer recently experienced a series of problems, before refusing to start up at all. It wasn't recognising any of my DVD drives which prevented me from wiping the HD and making a fresh XP install. After borrowing my friend's external DVD drive I was finally able to do this (the 3rd time round - it crashed the first 2).

So now I have a shiny, clean HD with a fresh version of XP. But one problem remains (which happened to be the first symptom I experienced before my computer went last time). The computer will occasionally start jerking after start-up. I can hear it making a stuttering sound, and the mouse, and sound etc all behave in the same, stuttering way. I can return things to normal by going into standby briefly, and then the computer is fine.

As I have only just wiped my HD before the problem returned, surely this is a hardware problem? Does anybody know what could be causing this?

Also, it may not be connected, but I cannot receive my usual internet connection since wiping. I know that my IP is working (I am using my dad's mac on the same cable modem at the moment), and I have installed my motherbard drivers; most notably the ethernet adapter, and after setting up a connection it was usually straight forward. I don't know why things are different this time. Device manager shows nothing wrong, and the light is on by my ethernet socket. Any clues?

Many thanks

P.S. the original post I made before I could wipe the HD is here:
https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/comput...tml#post483776

UPDATE

... And now the computer won't recognise any of the DVD drives bar my friend's external (USB) drive. It is happening all over again.

Open your computer, and look around... its very easy to see if anything is misplaced, even if you are a beginner you should be able to smell burning, or see any problems...

It sounds like a power supply problem. If your internal dvd drives disappear all of a sudden, then its like a momentary loss of power most likely due to an inadequate power supply.

You friends external drive is powered by a separate ac adapter, that's why its still recognized.

So umm... new power supply?

Just asking u HVAC, I need to learn stuff lol...

(studying to be a computer repair person)

Sure. Google "power supply calculator" You'll find some informative forum posts.