Hi all, I hope someone can help.........
My PC has been running fine for 3 years and suddenly when it is starting up windows (on the windows 2000 loading screen with the blue loading bar) it powers off. I cannot turn it back on again until after I switch the power supply off at the mains for 10 secs minimum. If I turn off the mains for say 5 secs and then on again then press the power on button on the computer it will not power on. Even if I turn it off at the mains for 5 secs 3 times it a row it will not power up. Only if I have it off at the mains for 10 secs or more.

Once it is into windows (may take 3 or 4 attempts) it is fine.

Lately it will either restart or power off at the loading windows bar. If it restarts it will run the boot sequence again and may either: restart again, power off or enter windows.

Please help. Thanks
John

I had a similar problem with a system I built for my kiddos. Turned out to be a compatability issue between the mother board and the video card. I think it's odd that this just started happening to a system that's been stable for 3 years, which is a long time to go w/o an upgrade. Check your hard drive and make sure it's not fragmented to all get out. You might wanna shut your system down and blow out all the dust bunnies with a can of compressed air. Oh yeah, make sure your processor fan is still spinning too.

It sounds to me like your motherboard might be going bad. I had this problem a while ago, when a few capacitors blew on it. So basically what happened was when the computer powered up the capacitors were empty, but when they got a charge and couldn't hold it, the computer powered down. I would take your case apart and check for rounded off capacitors or ooze coming out of some of them. If you have any more questions feel free to ask back.

Welcome to TechSpot

Thanks for the feedback.
The mb has an on-board graphics card. The capacitors look ok.
It does sound like h/w issue as I have to turn off the mains power and back on again otherwise it won't start (even if I leave it for one day!)
Switching off the mains power seems like it is removing power from something so that it can start again.
Could it be the power supply?

hey poertner 1274,
I checked more carefully and it looks like some of my capacitors have some black stuff below it on the mb. Well done!! You are a genius!

Do you know what causes it? and if it can be fixed?

Cheers!

Ok, I searched around the net and find out why. Thanks for the help guys!

It would be nice to report your findings here, so other people might benefit from it as well. Thank you.

Well when mine blew, it was from a huge power surge. It blew my UPS as well. So they basically got overcharged. But to be honest I'm not sure of a 'general' rule as to why they blow.

Sorry guys,
I was in a bit of a rush that day and I have to leave town for a week.
Basically it is due to commercial esponage. If you read the following article (or search the web for leaking capacitors) you will encounter a story that is straight out of a best selling thiller.

http://www.burtonsys.com/bad_BP6/story1.html

The only manufacturer that has admitted it so far is Abit.
There are people on the web offering services to supply or replace capacitors. Abit say they will fix mbs if you are still in a 3 year warranty

Fascinating reading, that article!

RBS linked me to your link earlier. I'd read this news before.

One thing I've heard a lot of isn't suspecting corporate espionage, it's that the manufacturers are using underrated caps on the boards. Bleh. 5 cents saving per 100 boards must add up somehow, but I would think the customer service costs would quickly become more burdensome than the parts savings.

And if it were corp espionage I can promise there'd be a lawsuit somewhere about violation of contract and so forth. And probably more than one.

At this point I reckon it's just become an industry wide problem of using cheapest caps possible to save bucks, underrated caps to save bucks, and in the long run we're the ones who pay for it.. twice.

Wow, I've never heard of this before. That is very interesting. But now that you think about it, it's no different than Windows stopping support on older versions....just to get you to upgrade to the their newest versions. I know that the product lifecycle of a lot of stuff is about 3 years, then manufacturers want you to pitch it and get a new one.