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.

Guaranteed it is ATX or a sub of it if you are running Vista.

I would leave it on and just set the drive(s) and monitors to sleep and avoid the heat cyclces on the old board.

I'll check into this. Thanx

Its what I have been doing but, every once in a while we have an outage when someone down the road decides to take out a power pole or, a transformer gives up the ghost.

Needless to say, I have everything backed up.

I read through the posts and didn't see if you had tried running in compatibility mode? There is also software that will let you run most any program no matter what OS it was designed for I.E. quite a few years ago I was contracted to make error corrections and do upgrades to a desktop database called dBase2 which was one of the first desktop databases. I ran it in a CMD.exe window even though it was made to run on Intel 286 computers.
John Rogers the oldracer

I'm showing my lack of knowledge - you lost me at "compatibility mode". :(
Is this a OS tweak? Whatever it does, is it 100% reversible if it doesn't work?

dBase2, talk about a blast from the past. I did a few pretty extensive systems in dBase back in the mid 80's, found out a few years ago one was still running (on the same 286 pc) years beyond y2k.

In Windows 10/11/ETC you can have the software on a local hard disk and right click on the exe and select "run in compatibility mode". There are several programs that you can run to make a program think it is in MSDOS or an iPhone or others. Before trying ANYTHING I would make at least TWO copies of the whole set of sub directories including all data, exe files and test at least one of them to make sure it will work. I would suggest external hard drives and before you copy make sure the program does not require old fashioned FAT file system of does it need a more modern method of storage. Good luck
John Rogers the oldracer

Not sure what John is saying but the problem has nothing to do with the programs. Everything runs fine except the on/off button doesn't tell the computer to boot up. It acts as tho there is no power. The same button works fine when Windows is running and it shuts everything down. Hence it seems like it isn't a mechanical button issue. a new OS isn't going to do a darn thing until the box will power up.

PCs were never my 'thing' ... but I have some experience with systems, servers, hardware, etc..

If it ain't broke .... don't fix it :D

What changed/broke?

Start there ... no way in hell would I start doing random system updates .... just because ;).

Good luck!

edited my original post... blah, blah,blah ;)

Brought back bad memories :D

What John is asking you to do is to install it on another computer and try running the application in compatibility mode. Find the installed app in Windows Explorer, right click it, select properties. Select the Compatibility tab and change it to what the old computer was running. If it works, eWaste the old computer.

If that doesn't work, you're going to have to cough up more information. You've been asked for the service tag for the computer. All you've said is that it's a Dell. Dell what? Latitude, Inspirion, Optiplex, Vostro? What model?

Honestly, for what that hardware is worth, it would be just as easy to go on FBM, find a $30 desktop of the same vintage, swap your hard drive into it and call it a day.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1760721194.jpg

At my old workplace, the desktop team took two steps to resolve issues. Reimage the hard drive, or replace the hardware. Woe is you if you installed an unapproved application on your work computer, and about the time I retired the security team was removing everyone's rights to install anything themselves. Even for other IT folks.

Change the bios to boot on power restoration and get an inexpensive UPS for it.