What do you think? Hardware issue

I have a computer that is several years old. I bought it from gateway but have since added quite a bit of new hardware to it as well. Over the past few days if I ever shut my computer down it is very difficult to bring it back up. I push the power button and nothing happens, I could try again in a couple seconds and it would come back up. Yesterday it happened again, and I have not been able to get it back up yet. I have not had a ton of time to troubleshoot yet, but this is what I know or have done already.

Reseat the power cable
Reseat the cable for the power switch
Remove the faceplace and try the switch without it
There is a led lit up on the mb
I do not smell anything

I am torn between thinking this is a power supply issue, my gut is with the switch but I know of much more power supply issues than switch issues. Also the fact that it worked in the past only by giving it a few minutes.

What do you think? TIA

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Comments

sprkymrk

I had the same thing happen on a home built computer. The problem got worse and worse over the months and I never could figure it out. In the end I believe it was the mobo.

My symptoms were a little different though now that I think of it. I would hit the power button and it would give 3 long beeps and shut down. Might happen once, twice or a dozen times (toward the end) but finally come up.

And for anyone about to post the Pheneoix Bios beep codes for 3 longs, never mind. I checked that (whatever it was) and it wasn't the problem.

Anyway, this was years ago. Sorry for rambling. I guess my comment is that it could be a mobo problem, but thats just a wild guess.

eg2505

what wattage rating is your PSU

:

If you have graphics cards,fans,lights ect...

than maybe your PSU cant cope
try hooking it up to a more powerful PSU and see if that helps

just go to a computer support shop and ask the technical person to hook it up to a more powerful PSU to test

tell him you will buy the PSU from him if he dosent agree

hope that helps

Mishra

A few Easy things to do to troubleshoot:

Grab another case and put the switch onto the motherboard in the other case... You might have to stick the cases really close together but it may reach.

If you think you are over your wattage limit, then just unplug a few devices then see if turns off and on normally. Remember to try to turn it off and on the same way first to try and reproduce the issue.

Clear your CMOS

Use another PSU from a different box or go buy on and return it if it doesn't fix the issue. Don't bother mounting it or anything

BTW: When I first read your post I thought "motherboard" as well.

rfult001

try a new power supply. if the problem persists take a look at the mobo for blown or puffed up capacitors. I had this happen to me a couple of days ago with one of my older systems. If it looks good, remove all of your pc cards, disconnect your drives and ram, then reconnect things one at a time until you find out what is causing your problem.

Ahriakin

You don't need to move the PSU or MBD to test their power-on features. On the MBD take off the 2-wire power switch connector and short those pins in the motherboard with a screwdriver - it won't cause any damage and has the same effect as pressing your On switch. If that works and cleaning the pins/putting the switch connector back on fails then it's the switch. If not disconnect the PSU from your motherboard and try manually starting it up http://forums.techpowerup.com/archive/index.php/t-25.html . If that fails its the PSU.

Anything else and I'd go with MBD failure (which it sounds like).

Kasor

I hope is not a dell machine... PSU or MB is the major cause of this type of problem.

Usually, replacing MB will be the easier way to resolve the problem.

cacharo

Thanks all for the comments

eg2505 wrote:

what wattage rating is your PSU :

just go to a computer support shop and ask the technical person to hook it up to a more powerful PSU to test

tell him you will buy the PSU from him if he dosent agree

hope that helps

Good ideas, I don't know my wattage rating of the top of my head. My hardware has not changed recently.

Mishra wrote:

A few Easy things to do to troubleshoot:

Grab another case and put the switch onto the motherboard in the other case... You might have to stick the cases really close together but it may reach.

If you think you are over your wattage limit, then just unplug a few devices then see if turns off and on normally. Remember to try to turn it off and on the same way first to try and reproduce the issue.

Clear your CMOS

Use another PSU from a different box or go buy on and return it if it doesn't fix the issue. Don't bother mounting it or anything

I am going to try to find and remove a switch from an old comp at work today. By the sounds of it more for peace of mind than anything else, but oh well. I will try to get my hands on a psu as well.

I will get to unplugging devices later today, I didn't get the hands on troubleshooting I wanted last night because I have infant twins who were really fussy last night.

Ahriakin wrote:

You don't need to move the PSU or MBD to test their power-on features. On the MBD take off the 2-wire power switch connector and short those pins in the motherboard with a screwdriver - it won't cause any damage and has the same effect as pressing your On switch. If that works and cleaning the pins/putting the switch connector back on fails then it's the switch. If not disconnect the PSU from your motherboard and try manually starting it up http://forums.techpowerup.com/archive/index.php/t-25.html . If that fails its the PSU.

Anything else and I'd go with MBD failure (which it sounds like).

Very good ideas, thanks everyone.

Mishra

Ahriakin wrote:

You don't need to move the PSU or MBD to test their power-on features. On the MBD take off the 2-wire power switch connector and short those pins in the motherboard with a screwdriver - it won't cause any damage and has the same effect as pressing your On switch.

Forgot about that... I've used a fillips screw driver to do that before as it rests on both sides pretty well.

However just turning on the power supply one time might not be fully reproducing the problem as there is no load on the PSU. Testing with a new PSU is more time consuming but better troubleshooting method.

cacharo

New PSU cleared it all up. Thanks again everyone!