Strange Problem Starting Office Pc - Need Advice & Help

Speed · 4 Feb 2008 at 19:22

Hi Guys,

I’ve had a problem starting an office Pc for a couple of months now, but not had time to look into it until recently. It’s been working perfectly for a couple of years now and is pretty basic in spec: AMD Althon 3000+ 939, Asus A8N-E, 2 x 512mb DDR400, Antec P180, Antec Phantom 350 etc.

When I press the power button the power light flashes for a second and the fans also spin, but the computer doesn’t start. If I press the power button a second time nothing happens, I have to turn off the power supply using the button on the rear, wait for the 5v LED on the motherboard to go out and then turn the power supply back on with the switch in order to attempt another start.

I’ve found that spinning the fans manually before pressing the on button seems to increase the chances of it starting, but it could well just be a fluke. I’ve checked various connections, it also doesn’t matter if it’s just been switched on or hasn’t been switched on in days. It is kept in a rather cold place, but as the problem happens even if you attempt to start it right after switching it off, I don’t think that is the cause.

This all of course leads me to believe the power supply is faulty, maybe something to do with how it supplies power to start the computer up.

Looking for people with similar experiences, especially the fact you can’t attempt another start without turning the power supply off and on again first. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Kind Regards,

Mark

Munkeh · 4 Feb 2008 at 20:33

I found this happening when my motherboard was on its way out. Try a different PSU and see if that fixes it, but sounds like a mobo failing.

Nick644622 · 4 Feb 2008 at 23:51

Is it set to hibernate or suspend to RAM & on after power fail in the BIOS ? Some of the older hardware isn't totally compliant & sulks. I have an older PC still in use (S939) that plays up with anything energy saving set.

Speed · 5 Feb 2008 at 10:02

Munkeh said:
I found this happening when my motherboard was on its way out. Try a different PSU and see if that fixes it, but sounds like a mobo failing.

Thanks, I'll bear that in mind. Did you have the same problem with having to turn the power off and on again to attempt another start?

Nick644622 said:
Is it set to hibernate or suspend to RAM & on after power fail in the BIOS ? Some of the older hardware isn't totally compliant & sulks. I have an older PC still in use (S939) that plays up with anything energy saving set.

I think I have the AMD CPU energy saving mode on, I'll take a look in BIOS and see if anything helps. Thanks.

Speed · 5 Feb 2008 at 10:28

Nick644622 said:
Is it set to hibernate or suspend to RAM & on after power fail in the BIOS ? Some of the older hardware isn't totally compliant & sulks. I have an older PC still in use (S939) that plays up with anything energy saving set.

Just to follow up, the Power settings are currently as follows:

ACPI Suspend Type: S1&S3 (Other Options: S3 (STR) or S1 (POS))
ACPI APIC Support: Enabled (Other Options: Disabled)

Is it safe to change the Suspend type? The second option I enabled to get AMD Cool’n’Quiet to work.

MivkM · 5 Feb 2008 at 10:36

change it to S1 and it wont drop power at all i think

APIC support disabled wont be affecting it, it is when this is enabled it is changing power settings.

Speed · 5 Feb 2008 at 11:18

MivkM said:
change it to S1 and it wont drop power at all i think

APIC support disabled wont be affecting it, it is when this is enabled it is changing power settings.

Well at the moment it is enabled. The settings listed first are what I'm using now, the stuff in the brackets is what other options are available.

MivkM · 5 Feb 2008 at 11:29

Ok, personally i would try jut on S1 and Disabled

Speed · 5 Feb 2008 at 15:15

MivkM said:
Ok, personally i would try jut on S1 and Disabled

I'll give that a go, thanks.

Speed · 6 Feb 2008 at 17:48

Quick update, the power options in BIOS being changed didn't help so I've ordered a new PSU. Should be here tomorrow so hopefully all things going well I should have it tested with the new power supply tomorrow evening.

Wish me luck!

Speed · 7 Feb 2008 at 20:38

Hi Guys,

New PSU went in this afternoon and I'm happy to report that the Pc is starting first time. Although only time will tell if the problem is sorted for good, it seems for the moment that it is.

Many thanks for the help.