Can not Start my system using power button on cabinet

turn on the power-button of my cabinet and i don't even get the BIOS screen, monitor does not even turns on to show me soemthing. The disk-usage as shown by the red-light of cabinet is 100% bright red light like if it is continuously accessing the HDD.

Then I press the reset button (because the big power-button does not work at this time) and it shows me the BIOS screen. I cleaned up the dirt form the FAN and the heat-sync, I cleaned up the RAM slots, there was lots of dust on RAMs themselves. Now even after checking the power connection on the MOBO and the HDD cables (one IDE and one SATA) I still don't get the BIOS screen at first try. I always have to press the reset button after power-button to get my compuetr working.

Any ideas on the this strange issue ?

you've got the reset cable plugged into the power pins on the mobo header probably. the reset switch is only closed whilst pressing, hence the life on the screen when you press it.

Sounds like a dying PSU or bad caps on m/b

You could reset the CMOS.
Then unplug all usb serial and parallel connections and boot.

Then unplug everything except the PSU, mobo, one stick of RAM and the VGA and see if it posts the first time.

Go from there.

I know PSU but whats bad caps ?

Here is what I did in order:


* I changed all the BIOS seetings to default and then rebooted. Problem not resolved.

* Removed all HDDs and DVD-Drives and USB wires connecting to MOBO. Now MOBO has only 2 things: power supply and 2 RAMs in 2 slots. Then tested it but same problem.

* On the empty MOBO, I checked RAM and slots with different combinations of 1 RAM and 1 slot. Problem not resolved.

* On the empty MOBO, I removed the power connection from cabinet and directly short-circuit(ed) the power-pins (POWER SW pins as manual says it) of MOBO to make sure that power-supply button has problem or not. The proble still remains same.

* On the empty MOBO, I changed the PSU. Problem remains same.

There is one strange thing. If I do reboot using reboot command, it reboots fine but if II shut off and then boot using power button then again I have to use Reset button to start the computer. So, from all this what I am left to deduce ? .... Is MOBO gone or the UPS is culprit ?

Maybe the power and reset buttons are reversed, it's sure acting that way. Unfortunately, it doesn't make sense since it was working. Even if the power switch was broken it shouldn't boot by shorting the reset pins (using the reset switch).

Maybe a flaky mobo.

It still sounds like a button issue to me. Unfortunatly for you I cant swap the cables for you.

You are the one that doesnt get the point.

Take your time and read.

The power and reset share the same circuit, and the power might be shorting out but then the reset is grounded fine so when you use it it charges the circuit and you get power.

If swapping cables dont work then you need to check the psu, and then mobo.

Unhook power button.
Hook reset button where power button should be.
Try turning on with reset button plugged where power button was.

If this doesnt work you probably have a cold solder joint on the power button connector on mobo, not allowing a complete circuit.

Here something new I have tried:

• I used the shutdown command rather than poweroff and then system waits for me to power it off. Then I kept the power button pressed for 10 seconds and it powers the system off. I reproduced it many times.

• When I turn on my machine, as I said I have to use power and then reset button, then when I get to the BIOS screen, I can simply turn it off using a single press on power button, I don't need to keep it pressed for 10 seconds to power off.

• When I have used the power buton without using reset afterwards, machine does not turn on (you know it already). I can turn it off by holding the power button for 10 seconds.

Hmmm..... Pressing the power button first and then the reset button starts the pc.

Hmmm..... Once the system is running pressing the power button momentarily shuts down the pc.

Both symptoms seem to indicate some sort of problem with the BIOS settings.

In some BIOS versions if the BIOS settings are incorrect it won't post. Instead it tries to reset and start with different BIOS settings. When you shut down and then restart it does the same thing again and again until the settings in BIOS are corrected.

In some BIOS versions you can change the shut down process so you only have to press the power button momentarily instead of pressing for several seconds. I know I experimented with it. That is definitely a BIOS setting.

arnuld - Besides clearing CMOS as suggested also check all your BIOS settings. I know you mentioned you tried the default settings but there may be something in the default settings that is causing a conflict. I am growing old disgracefully and I forget things but I want to say it was some of the ASUS motherboards that did it. What motherboard do you have?

Try using the cd to restore the BIOS first to see if you can get the pc up and running normally. However, you still should check all the settings in BIOS. The default settings may or may not match your system configuration.

I tried it, again no luck with that . Now, as a last try, I will reset the BIOS using the MOBO CD.

Anyone has any advice on that, when I put in the CD, it is bootable and it shows me the FreeDOS floppy like prompt with 3 options. I don't remember all the options, one of them is Format Floppy but there is no option related in any way to BIOS :\

There should be a BIOS flash executable on the CD and a BIOS flash file that matches the BIOS revision you have now. You run the exe and locate the file and then flash it.

Flashing can sometimes be dicey, so you have a small chance of winding up with a brick for a mobo. Just thought you should know.

When my mobo is flaking out I update the BIOS. There is a shot of it working. It's a bad idea to update the BIOS if you are getting blue screens, due to bad RAM etc., because it will be very likely that you will get a bad flash and wind up with a brick. Since that is not your problem I would flash and see what you get.

DO NOT ever flash the BIOS in Windows, it's a bad idea. Either use the on board flash, which you may or may not have, or the floppy/CD DOS boot disk.

Always be prepared to buy a new mobo, in case you wind up with a brick. It doesn't happen that often, but it does happen.

Yeah the economy sucks. With the on board Flash, a memory stick and the correct BIOS you should be fine. Unfortunately, the flash probably won't fix your problem, but it's worth a shot.

It will probably be ok. Good luck with it.

Yesterday, a strange thing happened. Suddenly, everything on my system got frozen. I gave command <b>top</b> to see what is eating CPU and I got this: I/O Error. I tried running firefox but again system was unable to read the disk. Even when I pressed Ctrl-Alt-Del the system froze in the middle while rebooting. I did a hard reset and then system hung up at BIOS POST message, I reset it 4 times and agian it always got stuck at BIOS POST. AT 5th time it booted but then hanged halfway in the middle when system was starting up. Something came to my mind and I replaced the PSU and at first boot it started working, no I/O errors. I left the system running overnight and in the morning it was still running fine. So I conclude this:

1) MOBO is fine, its the PSU who fried the MOBO
2) PSu itself may not be the problem. It could be the UPS who is sending wrong voltage to PSU and then PSU got corrupted which then corrupted the MOBO.

but how UPS got corrupted ? My system was couriered from 2000 KM away to here and in the process my cabiniet was broken because of extreme phycial shocks given by poor Indian courier compnaies (Well, I can't afford DHL, it is 10 times expansive than normal courier )