Weird problem with old desktop computer
 

Everything works fine. When I press the power button it shuts down normally.

Problem: when I press the power button to turn it back on nothing happens. I sometimes have to press it a few times (sometimes a few dozen times) to get it to power back up.

I'm thinking if it was just the button then why does it always work when I am shutting down but not when powering back up?

Suggestions?

Is this a standard desktop with a ATX style motherboard? If so, you can google for "PSU Paperclip Test". Follow the directions, basically disconnect the power from the PC, open it up, remove the power cable from the motherboard and jumper two of the pins with a paperclip or similar. I'd have to look to see which pins. Then reconnect the power supply to power, and if the fan in it spins up, then you likely have a problem with the motherboard.

You might be able to just re-seat the connections and that would solve the problem.

There haven't been real switches for power on computers in 20+ years now, they are all software switches, which is why hitting the power switch to turn it off sends it into a "graceful" shutdown vs. actually just killing power.

IIRC Windows had issues dealing with this and the power management drivers.... so it is likely not your hardware, though a BIOS update may help

Yea, a BIOS update might do it, if one is available. I update my BIOS anytime I find one.

For day to day use, I just put my computer to sleep mode. It is ready to use in much less time than from cold. Part of my slow boot is the 256Gig of RAM the computer has to check on initial boot.

It still blows me away that my first DOS PC had a whopping 256K of ram, and I had to go buy more ram to get to the max of 640K, as that is all the ram Bill Gates figured any computer might ever need. Now I have what, 100,000 times more ram.

You might want to replace the system battery while you're in there if you open it up.
Might help, or not, but it never hurts to try it.

Thanks for the input!

This a VERY OLD machine - Running Vista. I am trying to keep it going because there is software on there I can't run in newer machines. I don't use it for anything that would involve finances, credit cards, personal data...

Obviously, there are no updates available and I kept it up to date until MS a Dell (there is a special place in Hades for Dell customer service) stopped. I hesitate to reinstall all software for the concern if something goes bad along the way I am out in the cold.

I have no idea if the machine has an ATX motherboard but if someone can tell me where to look I'll check with software or hardware.

bump - help with identifying the motherboard please

Dells are somewhat proprietary as far as that goes.

However... they are also really good about keeping old drivers, etc. available and around (at least for the optiplex and other business/corporate lines) for a VERY long time.

Look on the back of the machine, there will be a service tag on it (6 or 8 digit code IIRC) and an express service code (longer and has hyphens in it IIRC). That should let you access all of the BIOS updates, whatever latest drivers for whatever OSes were shipped/supported with that model new, etc.