Whats wrong with my pc hard drive.?

Hi guys just wondering if anyone could confirm what i think is wrong with my computer before i go starting to buy components.

its an Advent 3418

and for the passes couple of weeks when i turn it on i get to the desktop for a few minutes and the hard drive just cuts off dead, i cant eaven boot into safe mode, the hard drive cuts off and the monitor goes to stand by.

so is this needing a new hard drive yeah.?

i have clean out all the inside of dust and the HSF, reseated the ram and gfx card and all power connectors but still get the same result.

and if this is the case can anyone tell me if i can get a new sata drive instead of another IDE and where to download the drivers for the chipset and motherboard.

Many thanks

that doesn't sound like a hard drive issue. If a hard drive turns off or is defective, it doesn't normally blank the screen but the whole system locks up (typically).

You can download bootable tools to test the hard disk (Ultimate boot cd).

Is the system still on when the screen just goes blank? or is it off?

when you try to boot, do you see a BIOS/POST screen? or nothing at all?

Sounds like your system's power settings are all set to power off too soon. If you can get in to BIOS go to the power settings and see if the hybernation or standby are set to low.

Personally I turn off all of those, nothing like typing an email or building a web page and the system decides to go to sleep...

HTH

yeah everything on the system keeps running just the hard drive turns off, when i try to enter safe mode the screen locks on the loading part with the white writing.

thanks

how do you know the hard drive "turns off"? Have you opened the case and felt the hard drive when the system has locked?
Have you disconnected the hard drive, then tried entering bios?
Have you tried booting off of a LiveCD (maybe something like a bartPE or linuxLive CD) to see if the system still does the same thing? Those do not run from the hard disk so if it turns off, it should not have any effect on the system unless you are trying to access folders/data from it.

Right update,

tried a new hard drive that i know works, a new gfx card, ram and psu that i know all work cause i pulled them from working systems, so this has only left me with the mobo and cpu could this be the problem.?

yes, it could be.