I've got a desktop PC I built a couple years ago. However, the PSU is a 2016 model I kept from my old build.

Lately my PC is hard to boot. I press power switch and nothing happens. If I keep pressing eventually it turns on. Because of this I usually just let it sleep and wake it with the mouse.

Other day I tried to wake it and it was dead. Mouse and keyboard did nothing, nor did pressing power switch. To be sure my power strip wasn't bad, I plugged it directly into wall and still nothing.

Next I tried jump starting it from the motherboard pins made for that. Still nothing. Dead as doornail. So I ordered a new Corsair PSU and figured I'd live without it a few days.

Tonight I came home and my PC was running. No one was here and no one could have turned it on. I thought since it was on id try to use it but the mouse and keyboard were dead (and were plugged in).

Is my PC haunted? Does anyone have an explanation for this wacky "come on by itself" behavior?

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Posted by Korkstand

Member since Nov 2003

28997 posts

Posted on 7/30/23 at 8:24 pm to AUstar

About a million things have to go right for a computer to turn on, hard to say what's wrong.

My go-to for trouble booting is to unplug the machine and hold the power button for 30 seconds or so. Plug back in and see if it comes on. I think it has to do with a capacitor or something going bad, and this procedure discharges it and gets things working right. Or something like that. I've seen this procedure work on multiple laptops and desktops, but with the laptop you have to also pull the battery if possible.

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Posted by dakarx

Member since Sep 2018

7830 posts

Posted on 7/31/23 at 9:16 am to Korkstand

Another possible issue is the power switch itself. Since it's just a momentary switch on a lower power circuit so corroded contacts could be the culprit for not making contact to power on as well as sticky contacts not quite closed building up enough capacitance over time to finally close the circuit to cause the mysterious self power on.

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Posted by AUstar

Member since Dec 2012

18442 posts

Posted on 8/1/23 at 12:29 am to dakarx

My brand new PSU got here today. Installed it and PC is still dead (even after trying to jump start it directly from motherboard in case the power switch on the case is bad).

Only thing it can be at this point is the motherboard. A few months ago my onboard LAN stopped working and I had to buy a networking card to get back online. So the mobo has had issues before.

I still have 2 months of warranty left on the mobo, so I guess I'll send it in. It takes around a month for them to get it back to the customer which kinda sucks. Good news is they have a service center in Cali which will shave some time off shipping compared to it going to Chyna.

EDIT 8-2-2023

Decided to just buy a new motherboard. Got it next day, put all my current hardware on it, plugged it into my existing case/PSU and it powered on immediately. The power switch on my case is fine as is everything else.

POS Gigabyte motherboard dying in just under 3 years. A Gigabyte board I had about 7 years ago had audio that screeched in your ear randomly. Went to their forums and tons of people had the same issue (like hundreds). Gigabyte said they'd look into it but later claimed they could not replicate the issue and would not be refunding any of us. I just threw the board in the trash.

This post was edited on 8/2/23 at 8:48 pm

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