Power-on issues

[i_love_ninjas]

Hi all,
Thanks in advance for any help you can give. I have a 2 and a half year old system with these specs:

amd athlon xp barton 2800+
epox 8rda+ mb
radeon 9700 pro all-in-wonder
nvidia geforce mx 4000 (i run 2 monitors)
2x 256 mb kingston hyper-x ram
1x 512 mb kingston hyper x ram

It's worked flawlessly since I put it together, but it's always had this weird little problem. If the power in my house shuts off, the system will not power back on for a few hours. I hit the power button, and it will flicker to life for an instant and then die. I have to let it sit and chill out for at least an hour before it will let me turn it on again. I have never understood it. I bought a new power supply (400 w) a year ago but that didn't solve the problem.

This wasn't a big issue for me because it didn't happen often, but lately the system has been shutting itself off at random times, and when it does, I need to wait a few hours before I can turn it on again. Sometimes it will stay on for days at a time so I don't think it's an overheating issue. Temps at bootup screen are usually 15 C, and cpu gets to high 30's after being on for a little while. I don't overclock. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[CHEEZball]

Have you tried it on a different wall plug? Perhaps your house isn't distributing power evenly

 

[bill_bright]

That's the strangest thing I've ever heard. This happens only when there is a power outage? If you shut down normally, are you always able to fire it right up again? If you lose power frequently, you should get an UPS - actually I think all PCs should be on UPS - but that's for another discussion.

Note that 15°C = 59°F - is that really the ambient temperature of your room?

That fact that it is starting to shut down at other times indicates other problems, such as temps, failing memory, failing video card, malware, power supply, or even the motherboard.

Have you check for malware? Is the inside of the PC clean of dust and dirt? All fans are spinning freely?

To test your RAM, download and install on to a formatted floppy MemTest86. Select Download - Pre-Compiled Memtest86 v3.2 installable from Windows and DOS.
Then, with the floppy in the drive, reboot the computer. The computer should boot to the floppy and start testing your RAM. Let it run for several passes or even overnight. You should have no reported errors.

Alternatively, if you have more than one memory stick, you can pull one, run with that, and swap it out with another stick and through process of elimination, determine if one is bad. Just make sure you unplug the computer before digging inside and make sure you keep yourself in contact with the chassis to prevent ESD damage.

 

[Rugger]

Lots of great advice...especially the UPS for his situation.