Computer wont turn on properly

[wesga34]

Hi, I am having problems turning on my computer. I push the button, it acts like it will power up, things whir and spin but it only lasts about 3 to 5 seconds then it shuts off. It takes approx 10 or more times to finally get it to stay on. However it then runs perfectly untill the next time I try to turn it on. Occaisionaly it will turn on first try.

I am trying to figure out if the problem is the button itself, the power supply, possibly the hard drive, or some other problem. Anyone have any ideas to help me? Thanks

 

[dlewis]

How the circuit works I am not sure but I think somewhere on your mother board there is an IC circuit that detect the on/off button being pressed an tells the BIOS to start/shut down the operating system. Sometime the ram can also have the some effects especially if you have added more ram.

 

[ekÆsine]

i can tell you for sure it most likely isn't your power switch. all that switch does is complete a circuit on the motherboard. you can use a screwdriver to touch the two pins that power the board up on the motherboard and that would do that same task, although i would strongly not recommend it.

it could be the power supply, but are you getting any beep codes? those error messages will tell you what is failing. it isn't the hard drive because if that failed you would get an error at post telling you there is nothing to boot from. but failing hard disk would not cause power on problems.

it could be from failing hardware or if you changed your hardware recently. i would suspect the power supply and motherboard first if no hardware has been upgraded/ changed.

wesga34 can you list your computer make/ model?

 

[wesga34]

AMD 1.33 GHz
windows xp home
1536 megs memory
mother board is an ASUTeK

Come to think of it, I did change video cards about the time this started to happen. Old card was an ATI Raedon 7200.
New card is GeForce4 ti4600.

The old card has a small wire on it that plugs into MB and also when i would shut down the computer with old Raedon card the the computer would also shut down the monitor automatic.

With the new GeForce card no wire plugs into the MB and I shut down the monitor manually.

I downloaded the most current drivers for the GeForce at time of installation. Not sure if I deleted the old Raedon drivers but probably did.

If the problem is the video card change, what do I do to fix the turn on problem?

 

[ekÆsine]

sorry i have no idea, i was just trying to help you narrow down your problems by telling you where the problem isn't coming from.

if you put the old video card back in does the problem go away? that would most likely mean the source of the problem is in your new video card. if thats what it is, hopefully someone else can help you with that.

 

[slafleur]

same problem

I've been having the same problem.

A7N8X Deluxe
AMD Barton 2500+
Bios 1009

400W power supply

I connected only the power and power switch cables. Whenever I hit the power switch, the system always runs for about 5 seconds and then powers down. One interesting thing is that if I remove the CPU, the system stays on. I connected some speakers and heard the "No CPU" voice announcement, but there is no beeps/announcement when the CPU is in.

I tried another CPU (AMD 1600+) and get the same results. Also, this is the second motherboard that is doing the same thing (I returned the previous one). I also tried a different case.

 

[zerozero]

Check in you add/remove software for any ATI drivers left and delete them.
In your control panel, under system/ hardware/ device manager/ display adapter will tell you which card / driver is installed.
You can also type msconfig.exe under RUN, then go to startup tab and see what is loaded on boot-up and check or disable any program running at startup.

hope this helps

 

[ZeekeDaGeek]

Does your MB have a fan sensor for the CPU? If it does, it's possible that the fan wire is loose. While you have the "hood up" check all your connections. It's easy to knock something loose when your installing or modifying components in "the box".
Been there, done that.

 

[slafleur]

no fan sensor

The motherboard doesn't have a fan/power sensor.

Some things I tried recently, but no solution:
- Took out the motherboard, put it on anti-static bag, and tried powering up from there.
- Looked on the motherboard for any obvious soldering problems.
- Reset CMOS.