BleepingComputer.com: For the Xperts - Delay Booting PC

Hey guys, as you can see I'm new around here though I have known about bleeping fo awhile. Just thought I would pick your brains about a weird problem I have.

I have a most peculiar problem I have a machine I built in late 01, ran it for awhile, then upgraded, and it went to my mother who used it for a few years, she upgraded in 08, and I got this machine back. It has been sitting around for over a year, and last week I dusted it off to setup a small file server on my local net.

Everything seemed to go ok when the next morning I woke and turned on that machine and it wouldnt power on. I checked the switches, the ground pins on the header, checked for bad connections etc etc. Eventually I noticed if it sat for awhile it would boot. To make a really long story short, it seems that when I turn the power off at night (kill powerstrip) the machine will not boot for more than 60 mins to less than 80 min. If I shut down the computer and turn it back on it boots right back up everytime. If I turn off the I/O switch on the supply for 5 min and back on it boots ok aswell. If I unplug the power cord from the supply for 5 mins then plug it back in, it boots ok aswell.

Furthermore there is a LED on the board and it takes almost 3 seconds to go out after the power is disconnected. That tells me the caps on the board are good, and I have checked the ripple on the power supply, and it is pretty low, so I dont suspect filter caps, but I am leaning toward a bad supply. It is an early style P4 with the 6 pin aux connector, so if its the problem I will probably repair it as I'm sure they are PNLA, or whoever has any is just waiting for that yokel that MUST have one so they can charge 200 bucks

Anyway, I would like some input from some other guys who are in the know, what ideas you may have. Meanwhile I'm gonna poke around an see if I can help some peeps ;)

Here are the specs:

Lead Power (generic) 500w ATX supply
Intel (MSI) D850GB
Williamette 1.5G
4 stick rambus
GeForce 3
3com NIC
Syba ATA controller
1 parallel drive
1 serial drive
cdrom
floppy

Just so you know what my technical experience is. I have 25+ yrs computer exp, degree in electronics, worked tech support on site, and on the phone, and various other mechanical, and electromechanical skills. phew! nuff of that.

<<...a machine I built in late 01...>>

How long has that PSU been installed? Sounds like it may be malperforming, IMO.

Louis

You do realize...it's asking a lot for motherboard, CPU, etc...to function well 9 years after purchase.

This post has been edited by hamluis: 15 March 2010 - 07:47 PM

Its the original PS I built the box with. I cleaned it out after I got it back. That I know of it wasnt doing that before I got it back or after. I has been sitting since dec 08.

edit

yeah I realize that, but it has always been solid.

This post has been edited by pnjunction: 15 March 2010 - 07:51 PM

I just scoped one of the aux rails (not the mb supply) and the only spikes I have on the 12v is one .15V, and another .1V. Neither is transient. The 5V rail is real clean. I've seen worse on a brand new chiefmax PSU Nothing smells bad in PS, and I did inspect it for scortching etc when I cleaned it last year. looking inside with a flashlight its still real clean, but I suppose I'm going to have to tear it down and bench it.

Any ideas much appreciated.

BTW when I cleaned it up last year I totally dusted everything, scrubbed the heatsinks, fresh thermal etc etc, basically 'rebuilt' it. Its just been sitting around since then.