2 Hour delay on boot up! This one has me stumped!

[Schui1024]

Hi.. 1st forum entry, and this one is a little strange.
I'm an IT Techy with 11 years exp, so most things get fixed easily, but this one I'm stuck on.

It's my Media Centre PC. Homebuilt, with the following spec
300w Jue Jye mini psu.
Intel Core2Duo 1.86ghz
stock heatsink with modded fan.
Gigabyte P31 Matx motherboard
2gb Geil DDR2 800 Ram
500gb Sata Disk and a Sata dvdrw
ATI radeon x1550 Graphics

Now my issue is this. When I press the power button it has a delay of 2 HOURS before turning on. Seriously. 2 HOURS. Works fine when it boots up, just a pain that I have to turn it on 2 hours before I want to start using it! lol.

Clearly I've tested the power lead, all fine. Reset the BIOS, there is no "Power on at 00:00" set. The power lead isn't on a timer. I don't have any spare psu/mobos to test it all yet. I'm assuming its the motherboard but having not experienced this issue in the past, am wondering if anyone has seen this before I start ordering new motherboards /psu's and wasting money unnecessarily.

Your opinions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Schui1024]

I've also tried bypassing the power switch and have the same issue. Power supply seems OK when shorting green and black wires, it powers on fine. Still has me confused!

 

[bpogdowz]

just trash all of those parts they're all garbage except for the RAM, HDD, & DVD

 

[Schui1024]

thanks for your comments bpogdowz.. i only use it to play the odd dvdrip, and mediacentre for music and photos. It doesn't do any hard work at all, no encoding or ripping etc. it's basically a filestore for my pictures and music.

I realise the hardware is not "cutting edge" but it does the job just fine.. just need it to turn on when I press the power button!

 

[Nik_I]

did you time it to see if it's really 2 hours? or is it just a random long time afterwards? and do you by any chance put it into sleep mode instead of shutting it down? when i used to put my pc into sleep mode, it would always turn on at 3am. this could be a similar situation.

 

[michaelahess]

I'd guess a cap in the PS is failling, probably leaking eloctrolyte, and it takes forever to charge, once it's charged it provides the juice to start it up.

But your second comment confuses me, bypassing the power switch has the 2 hour delay but shorting the wires (on the PS right?) turns it on immediately? That doesn't make sense.

 

[Schui1024]

Nik_I - I didn't time it properly, but I watched "Wanted" and cooked dinner, which took about 2 hours and it came on just after. It is approx 2 hours every time. I've changed the power settings in Vista to always shutdown and not sleep.. same for the power button, that's also set to shutdown.

Michaelahess - If I short the green and black on the psu connector it powers on fine. Your comment about the Cap could well be right, but as you say it's weird that the psu powers on fine when not plugged to the mobo. I'm going to pinch a spare psu from work this week and try a few things out.. just hoping it's not the mobo as unwiring the damn thing will be a nightmare! lol..

Thank you for all your comments.. muchly appreciated.

 

[Kaldor]

Id lean on bad PSU as mich suggested. When you short a green to black on the plug their is no load on the PSU which would explain why it would start right up, but under load it takes forever.

Time for a decent PSU around 500 watts.

 

[Schui1024]

I've nabbed a psu from work, and will test this weekend. I had the same issue lastnight and the delay was about 5 hours. It restarts just fine once it's on, and I flashed the bios to see if that helped. Sadly not. Will try a new psu.

Think 300w is about as high as I can go as this is a slimline case, with a mini psu... gah.

Thanks for all your advice.

 

[4Ryan6]

That definitely sounds like a bad P/S, its unusual it would boot at all, but when it does bootup, I assume you've cleared it of being some kind of Trojan Virus, Right?

 

[Schui1024]

It's clear of viruses etc. It's all upto date with AV and such like. It's defo not a software issue as it still happens when I have the hd out. Had to get some data off it quick. Will play about with the blasted thing this weekend and hopefully figure out whats not happy.

Am very grateful for the help and support provided by everyone. Many thanks

 

[Schui1024]

Phew. Tested with a spare psu, and it booted up just fine. Have already received delivery of the new one and it's working a dream.

Many thanks everyone for all your help. I'm just pleased it turns on when I want it to! lol..

 

[Kaldor]

Good to hear you got his resolved.