System Fail

[Wodrick]

For my sins I have a Mesh PC, it's a few years old now, and has been randomly failing for a while (reset for no reason). On switch on this morning, the first time for two weeks as we have been away, a little girlie whose voice I have never heard before is announcing "System Fail - CPU test" repeatedly. Is this the end ? I have done what I can think of i.e. checked MB connections, reseated the processor, done a power down including a disconnection from the mains etc.
it's an Asus MB with an AMD 2200+ CPU and if it were to get there it would be XP.
I think it's time for a new toy but just need assurance/the excuse.

[Bushfiva]

I'd be tempted to go the simple route. Buy a can of air, pull the RAM, spray the insides out and reinsert the RAM, one stick a time, and try booting. RAM sockets are way more prone to random stupidity than the CPU socket. I don't think I've ever had a computer where reseating the CPU has fixed it.

If there are electrolytic capacitors on the motherboard, check for signs of swelling or venting: motherboards of a certain age were made with a bad batch of capacitors, although I can't remember if Asus was affected by this.