Wont clear POST

[Prolix]

OK guys. Heres another tester for ya.

Athlon 64 3400 Clawhammer
MSI 6741 Socket 754 M/B
2x 512 Kingston DDR
200Gb Raid
Sony DVDRW
Panasonic DVD player
Radeon 9600 Graphics Card
Win XP Pro SP2
This is my home machine, and on first startup attempt will usually not get through POST, leaving me with blank screen, no sys beeps, but fans lights running. 2nd or 3rd attempt will startup, and if I only put the machine on standby when finished, then I have no further problems. Incidentally, sometimes on startup, on screen graphics are garbled and have to shutdown/ startup again to fix the problem. Have run memtest, 5 passes no probs. Have found blackened connectors from PSU to M/B in the past and have subsequently replaced PSU. Does the garbled graphics link in with the failure to clear POST? If I have a knackered graphics card, would it cause the blackening on connector? Could it be the motherboard? Bought this machine second hand so dont know the full history, but have had the problems most of the time I have owned it.

Thanks for your comments/ thoughts.

Dave

[syphus]

My first guess from what you describe would be a faulty Graphics Card.

You say 9600, but there are at least 4 different models. Is it a 9600 SE? If so, is it passively cooled (no fan)?