For the last week my computer has been playing up. I switch the power on at the wall and then push the button on the computer and the green light comes on and then nothing happens. An hour later the machine starts up on its own. If I turn it off later in the day and a couple of hours after that push the button to start it up again, it takes about 8 minutes to boot up. Any ideas as to what is happening? I thought maybe because the weather is cooler but a bit strange really.

Hi Tanya Can I ask are you in a habit of turning the pc off at the wall regularly? If so get a power surge protector and leave the power to the pc turned on all the time, I may be wrong but it could be that the mobo battery is running low. On a hot summers night would you offer your throat to the Wolf with the Red Roses?

I doubt very much if this has anything at all to do with the clock battery. Seems like a problem with the power supply. Won't hurt to try a different wall socket or a different power cord (make sure the cord is snugly plugged in as well, at both ends), just in case. If it is the PSU, easily replaced. Use

I have to agree with jboy re; the battery. I've had systems sitting unplugged for two years and upon power up they remember allo the settings and the date/time. And these were ~old~ systems. 286/386/486DX2 etc. If you get a power light right away, but it takes its time booting, then a first course of action would be to open the case and check ~ALL~ cable connections. Power and data cables. Where you see a cable, ensure it's secure. While you're in there clean the dust out where ever you find it. With the cover off, when you apply power, do the fans spin up and do you hear drive activity?

Yes the fans start up as soon as I press the on button but nothing else happens. About 30 seconds before it's going to boot up, the CD rom drive light flashes so I know then it's about to come alive! I took it apart this morning, dusted etc, put it back together and it started up in 30 seconds. Shut down and started it up 30 minutes later and it took 8 minutes to get going again. Later this afternoon tried again and it took over half an hour.

Really does sound like the power supply is failing, although I suppose it could be a problem with the motherboard circuitry. You've checked that the leads from the power supply are snug on the motherboard? Any different on another wall socket? Use

Took my computer to a computer friend today. Definitely not the power supply unit. Still don't know what the problem is so I'm leaving it on until I can take it to be fixed. Suggestions were motherboard or cpu.