[Jaramy]

When I power on my computer everything inside the case turns on...drives, fans, Motherboard light. But nothing happens. Nothing on my screen. No little beeps. It just keeps running like this, occassionally accessing drives, but nothing else. For about 10 minutes. Then all of a sudden, bam! Everything comes on and runs fine!

If I shut it off, then turn it on right away, works fine. If I leave it for a while, it does the same thing, but not for as long. If I leave it for a long while (overnight) it takes up to ten minutes to kick on.

Any idea what might be causing this?

Other than this, the machine works beautifully.

 

[clintfan]

Nothing off the top of my head. Better tell us all about your hardware: model numbers etc.. Then maybe someone can help you out.

-clintfan

 

[breakerfall]

Bad power supply?

If you can, try to unplug any PCI cards that are not essential to
the normal operation of your PC (soundcards, etc) see, if the system
regains stability. If it does, start plugging cards back, until you
find the culprit.

 

[Guest]

If this is a new build see if your hard drive is jumpered properly!

 

[Jaramy]

The systems kind of an oldy. I put her together over two years ago. Same everything I've been running for quite some time now. It's a VIA Apollo KX133 with an Athlon 800.

I haven't been able to test out any of the PCI stuff, because the problem only occurs if its been off for more than a couple of hours and I had to use it for work all day. Seems like the longer the computer stays off, the longer it takes to come back on.

Will try removing the PCIs tomorrow. Tried removing drives today...didn't have any effect.

 

[johnwill]

Did you open it up and remove and reseat all the expansion boards, cable connections, and memory? If it still has the issue, I'd find a hair drier and warm it up before the first power-up of the day. If that makes it come up right away, you have a temperature sensitive component. My technique for hunting these down is to use cooling spray and a heat gun to search for the offending part.

 

[Guest]

What size is your hard drive and how much is free?

Has this machine been running for two years without a clean install being done to it?

 

[Jaramy]

Pulled out all the PCIs, Drives, Cables, etc. Still has the problem. The drive has quite a bit of free space. Has been clean installed recently. Haven't tried the hairdryer yet...let you know how it goes.