PC won't power up when i press on button, however it power up on its on!!

Please help me solve this mystery, and i am sure my house is not haunted

My pc refuses to turn on yesterday, and when i left it for about 5 minutes it just turns on by itself! When it down like normal and yet it still doent turn on when i switch on button. 5 mins later it turns on again

I have checked the bios and there was no 'wake on lan' or anything like that. The cpu temp is healty and everything was as normal. It cannot be internet virus or anything because i moved to a new home and i still dont have internet. My PSU is brand new only 6 months old and its about 500 watts so it is sufficient to run all the stuff in my pc. I use to keep it on 24 hours in my old house just downloading stuff and palying games.

I really dont know whats wrong, anyone who has experience this problem please share with me....

Thanks

 

Check all connections. Make sure your motherboard is hooked up correctly and that it's not touching any metal parts of the case.

 

All the connections and everything is in place. It has always been working for past 6 months and this happened last night.

COuld it be the cmos battery? Its only been 2years old

 

The CMOS battery would only make your clock reset and make you lose your Motherboard specifications. But it should still boot instantly with a dead battery.

Also, is your PSU one that came with the case? Because they are known to crap out after a couple months of use.

 

A PSU that came with a case could cause that, they are known to be pretty dire. If all connections are right, I can only point to that or the mobo (which is unlikely)

 

Yes i would agree that the PSU is crap, and it didnt come with the case, bought it seperately

Yesterday i borrowed a psu and hooked it up and everythign was resolve and i could turn my pc on again.

Just after 6 months my psu died, bit of a dissapointment.

Spoke to an electrical engineer and he came with this analysis.

my psu supply was about 500-550 watts. My optimum power requirement was 450-475. Though the fact that i was using just enough power to drive all my drives and gfx, etc it was wearing out the component on the psu. Hence the lifetime of the psu

the psu wont switch on because the capacitor banks are exhausted. And it needed more time to recharged than normal, hence my pc wont switch on till 5 minutes after.

Thanks for all yoru advise, now i have to buy a new psu and make sure its 600watts this time

 

Funnily enough I'm hopefully training to become an electronic engineer (that depends on my A Level results tomorrow) but while I'd agree with his analysis, that shouldn't hapen after 6 months, the components are obviously poorly made which is resulting in the problem. You should be able to run a high quality 450W PSU at 440W load 24/7 for 5 years, so it being worn out is no excuse, although that's what happened. The capacitors may also have leaked, if you were to open that box (although if you do make sure it's at least 3 days after it was last connected to the mains, and wear insulated clothing like gloves, to avoid risk of shock) I bet you'd find some of the capacitors (the cylinder things) had domed tops rather than flat ones. It's a result of an incident a few years back in the far east where someone stole a "recipe" if you like for a capacitor that was flawed and unfinished and sold it on. Loads of companies bought the idea, used it and all the capacitors coming out of those companies are flawed, and that scenario happens. Little bit of history there for you! LOL

 

An elctrical engineer eh?

I'll come to you next time I need help with my PSU, sammorris

But I think we can come to the conclusion that the PSU crapped out. Get a 500W Enermax Liberty. It's one of the best 500W PSUs you can get. Or for about the same price you can score a 580W Hiper. I'm told it's excellent.

 

It is. I've yet to hear of a problem with one (touches wood)

 

I have a 420 Watt power supply that came with my case. I hope I doesnt die on me soon! (I just built my comp recently)

P.S.
Do SATA HDD's take less power than PATA HDD's? Do fans take alot of power?

 

I'm not sure that's all that relevant with a free-with-case PSU. For a 420 it could put out 430, could put out 200, they vary. A free-with-case Magna 600W could only deliver 250W.

 

I am only using 245 Watts!! I have a 420 Watt PSU!! I am using about only 60% of it's capacity!! That's good news! My PSU won't die on me then, right?

 

Who knows? Like I say, my Magna 600W couldn't cope with 250W. There's no telling with pikey PSUs like those.

 

I've known OEM in-case PSUs that have just been used for a few days at 50% and just die for no reason. So if it's holding out on you I guess it's ok but if it starts acting up on you I think you should junk it before it costs you more money than a new PSU altogether.

 

Just like happened to me, and that wasn't even a with-case PSU, it was a purchased one! But it goes to show, a £25 power supply actually cost me £250 and 220GB of data.

 

My PSU is working very well...I do hope that doesn't change.

 

here is a rule of thumb when dealing with Power Supplies and memory.

"Buy the best your pocketbook can afford" and you will have the least amount of "hardware" problems with your computer.

 

That's actually complete crap about computers. I see what you're saying but a £150 machine built properly will work much more reliably than a £1500 PC built badly. It is true for PSUs definitely, and always buy a good PSU (doesn't have to be outrageously expensive) and get decent RAM, but Corsair Value is quite cheap and that counts as decent.

 

hehe..everyone has their own opinion, but I stick with the idea of going ahead and put out the money and buy a very good power supply, and when it comes to memory, I try to buy as much as I can and stick with a well known manufacture. (my computers seem to run better, and I have built many)

This is just my personal experience....your mileage may vary.