So a little while ago, my machine stopped turning on. When I pressed the power button, the proverbial gears started turning. The power supply turned on, the fans started going, etc., but nothing actually happened. The computer didn't output any video and it basically just sat there, collecting dust and running up my power bill. Quite by accident, I discovered that if I removed the power cord, replaced it, and IMMEDIATEY pressed the power button, it would start up fine. So I kept doing it this way, but it would work fewer and fewer of the times that I did it. I could tell if it worked if I heard a 'beep'. If I did, I knew everything would work out fine. If not, I had to try again. Now, I assumed this 'beep' was if the processor started going, so I figured that it was the processor causing the problems, so I reseated it. Now nothing I do can get the thing going. I've tried and tried my little trick to no avail. Now the computer is legally dead. Is the processor just dead? Did reseating it kill it? Was it something else? Is this fixable?

Start from the power cord, swap that. If nothing, next is the PSU.......hopefully it's not the motherboard.

My guess is bad motherboard as I had one act the same last week. Smitty

Reseating the processor wouldn't have killed it--unless you zapped something when the case was open. Since you were in the case make sure everything you moved or may have jostled loose is connected correctly. Otherwise I'd guess bad motherboard.

Hmm. I tried a different power cord like Sabertooth suggested, and while it didn't start normally, the stupid power cord trick I outlined did. Then I switched to the original power cord again, and it also worked. So I guess the thing was.... resting. So, while it's not quite dead yet, is there any way to fix this problem, other than replacing the motherboard? I have no doubts that the motherboard is causing the problem, now that you mention it, by the way. That thing is OLD. It's an AOpen AX-34 Pro. And any thoughts on why the power cord thing makes any difference? I assure you that the thing WILL NOT start without me doing that, under any circumstances, so what difference could it be making?

As Sabertooth mentioned, it may be the power supply. Like smitty308, I've had a similar problem and it was the motherboard. But not every problem has a unique solution. So what looks to be the same problem may in fact be due to something else. I never fiddled with the power cable to see if that made any difference. The fact it seems to affect things with your PC may be clue.

it's either the motherboard or psu those are your 2 options. i'd say try changing out the psu first if that doesn't fix it then it's the motherboard for sure. AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 2GB Dual Channel DDR 3200 Nvidia 7800GT SATA II 2x 200gig 7200rpm 16mb cache RAID-0 Gigabyte Nforce 4 SLI