System Going Totally Dead

[Not sure where to go with this.....]

The system I'm having this trouble with is 3 weeks old. Twice in the last day when I've gone to use it it has been completely off. So I can't describe how its turning off. I don't know if its gracefully shutting down or just losing power.

On initial front-panel power button push no response. The system acts like its not plugged in: NO fans spin up. Its completely dead. Multiple cycles of the front panel power switch and rear-panel power supply switch ultimately cause the system to get power, the system boots, everything is fine.

How do I go about isolating the problem? I assume there are three possibles:
1. Front-panel power switch is bad
2. Motherboard is bad
3. Power supply is bad

Anyone have any advice?

Thanks.

Jim Haselmaier
jimhasel@home.com

I don't know what the fault is, but you may be able to narrow it down with a BIOS setting.

Get into the BIOS setup and look for an entry called 'Power after A/C back' or 'A/C power auto recovery', it may be in power management or integrated peripherals.

Set it to 'Full on' (you may just have the option of 'on', in which case choose that).

Save and exit, then as the machine boots, physicslly remove A/C power.

Restore it a minute later, the machine should come to life. Test it a few times to prove one way or the other.

If the fault remains, suspect the PSU or mobo. If the fault is cleared, the problem is likely to be an intermittent short on the front panel power switch.