Topic: My PC won't turn on.

[Quemaqua]

Basically the last several times I've turned it off (once to clean out some dust, another time to look at something, and again to put in my new video card), the PC wouldn't turn back on again when plugged in.  I'll press the power button and nothing happens.  I wasn't sure what the issue was at first, thinking maybe it was a fan that was clogged or something that had a sensor which wasn't coming on, so the PC wouldn't come out.  But I haven't found a thing.  All three times this has happened I've unplugged the thing again, taken it down to look at it, gotten fed up, plugged it back in... and it'll work.  It almost feels like the wire to the button is disconnected or something, but I can't really get to it and it doesn't *seem* loose.  I know it's getting power because all my USB devices will have their lights on when I flip the switch on the power supply, but the power button just doesn't want to work.

Any ideas?  I don't know enough to think about anything other than the power button itself.  I think there's a way to set a PC to boot when you press a button on the keyboard, isn't there?  I'm thinking I'll try to do that and see if that gets it to turn on, which may help me narrow it down.

[Cobra951]

I think you can set it up (in the low-level Setup) to boot whenever you power cycle it (in effect, bypassing the on/off button entirely).  Mine does that, and when I mentioned that to my brother, he told me I can change that in Setup.  So I have no firsthand knowledge.  Just something to check.

[Quemaqua]

That's a handy thought.  I'll check it out.

[scottws]

I've never seen such an option.  It might be as simple as having to check the leads that connect the power button to the motherboard.  Maybe one came out.

Or it might mean bad things for the state of your PSU or motherboard.

[Quemaqua]

Don't tell me that.  This rig is pretty new, I was really counting on these parts lasting me because I don't have the money to replace them.

I did want to check the leads for the power button, but unfortunately the way my case is designed it's ridiculously hard to get in there and requires way more effort than I want to give.

I guess maybe I'll just hope that I never have to turn the PC off again.  And hope we never have a power outage.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Sorry if this doesn't help, but I had a problem like this that lasted over the course of a day and it just ended up being that the power button was a little loose so it would not turn the computer on even though all of my USB devices were powering up like yours and my power supply has a light that comes on when its getting power and running ok so I knew it wasn't the power supply.  This might be a stupid suggestion but maybe the button itself is broken/loose?

[Quemaqua]

The button itself seems fine.  I'm guessing it's the lead, like Scott said, or at least I'm hoping it is (would sure beat having to replace something major).  I know it isn't the power supply since, like you, all my USB stuff comes up without issue.

[Cobra951]

When my cheap PC died, it happened right in front of me.  I heard arcing, and when I looked at it, I could see sparks dancing behind the on/off button in the front.  After that, nothing I did ever brought life back to the thing, including replacing the power supply twice.  It's as if power is simply not getting to the motherboard, assuming it isn't fried (which it very well may be after that Frankenstein moment).

I bring that up because if the on/off button (superfluous completely if you have a power switch on the PSU) stops making contact, what do you do?  Is there some safe way to short it out completely (i.e., to leave the input to the motherboard forever in the "on" state)?  That may help you, and it might give me a way to test the state of the motherboard on this dead PC.

[Quemaqua]

So the worthless fucking Bay Area power went out again today and I type this from my PS3.  YAY.  Getting sick of this.  I think my only remaining option is to take it to a shop.  Damn it to hell.  I couldn't find any way to turn it on via the keyboard in the BIOS setup.

I guess I could just post from my PS3 for the rest of my life.  Ew.

[Quemaqua]

Power went out again a couple days ago, and it occurred to me... why the hell don't I just switch the leads for reset and power?  Reset button is now power button.  Problem solved.

I feel like such an idiot.

[WindAndConfusion]

Your POWER BUTTON failed? I've never heard of that.

I had a similar thing happen to me once, but the cause was totally different. Apparently I had a hard drive short out (this was one of the many Saegate Barracudas that have failed me in the last three years), so as long as it was connected to the PSU, the power supply would fault and refuse to turn on. The remedy ended up being to disconnect the drive and then physically disconnect/reconnect the PSU from AC (thereby resetting it from fault mode), after which everything worked.

[Pugnate]

Power went out again a couple days ago, and it occurred to me... why the hell don't I just switch the leads for reset and power?  Reset button is now power button.  Problem solved.

I feel like such an idiot.

I would have never thought of that.

Also, I don't have a reset button.

[Quemaqua]

I don't have a reset button.

You should totally get one.  They're all the rage.

[Pugnate]

Hey D. Do you have a resest button?

[Ghandi]

Don't listen to him, D. Pug's just over-confident because he watched that video Scary posted about vagina's and now he's perfectly happy with his weird looking vagina.

[Pugnate]

D is my best facebook friend. He knows I like to kid.

He is also an awesome figure skating athlete. I was seriously impressed. It made me forget all about my weird genitalia.

[Quemaqua]

You people get out of my thread.  You're making it all girly.

[Ghandi]

You bastard. You're the one who keeps throwing pom-poms into every thread and telling us to "whore it up" for your own amusement.

You should be ashamed of yourself. Look at Pyro - he thinks he's a fucking cheerleader now.

[Quemaqua]

At least he can dance purty.

[Ghandi]

I can't help it that I can't afford a Bowflex. His abs are so defined.