Hi,
Hoping someone can point me in the right direction with this.

Recently I've been experiencing problems getting my PC to power up if I power it down and leave it for example overnight. It has happened 4 times now, but after about 30 minutes of messing around I manage to get it power up again.

A few points of interest. The PC is almost 3 years old, and is proberbly left on for most of the time (often overnight). I have a cable modem that for some reason prevents the machine from shutting down when connected (yes i've tried numerous things and win98 updates to fix this - nothing worked so I resigned myself to it). When fixing it I disconnect all wires.

Initially I considered options like the PC battery failing, heat expansion, broken connections, dodgy microswitch etc, but becuase I can and have got the PC to boot I've more or less eliminated these possibilities in my own mind.

I suspect that it is a problem with the power supply, but before I replace it I'd like to hear any other ideas.

What I discovered the last time this happened is if I remove the power cable from the PSU for a few seconds and then plug it back in I hear a dull thud/click sound from the PSU. Pressing the power button will result in the power light flashing on for a second. If I repeat the procedure eventually the power light will stay on and the PC will boot. However it does beep quite a few times (possibly becuase the monitor is not connected at the time?)

To me this suggests that the PSU is at fault, almost like it needs to discharge or charge up or something. Does this sound like a possibility?

Any insights would be gratefully recieved. thanks

Does sound like the Power Supply. Running near its maximum and making heavy weather of it. Seems like one of it safety devices is cutting in and wont reset until power is removed completley.

The absence of a monitor will not cause the bleeps. The BIOS cannot tell if there is a monitor connected or not, only if there is a video card. However the beeps could be one of the other devices failing to initialise properly becauue of power problems.

Have a look on your motherboards web site. The bleeps will give you some indication of whats wrong but I think a new power supply will cure it.

Stuart

thanks Stuart for the quick response.

I might be upgrading the video card soon, so a new power supply might have been in order anyway.

I'll give it a try

If the problem only occurs when the system is cold, I think it `is' a heat expansion/cold contraction problem. Contraction can open up flaky connections and expansion can close them up again. I would try reseating the motherboard power connection first. Then I would try the power supply.