[grodrigz]

Hi. I'm trying to fix a friend's older PC - one of those no-name custom builds with a AMD Duron processor, running at 946 Mhz. The problem is that about 90% of the time it won't boot the first time, but it will ALWAYS boots if you turn it off and immediately turn it back on (up to 10-12 seconds after turning it off the first time). During the first try you get no beeps, no POST and no video, but the fans are working.

BUT on the second try it ALWAYS boots up normally and works fine until you turn it off and back on again. I've tried just about all I can think of to remedy the problem as I imagine with time it will get worse. Cleaned the contacts for the memory and reseated them (2x128 mb - I know...sad). Cleaned contacts from graphic card, reseated it and replacing it with a known working one. Connected to the onboard video controller rather than the graphic card. Tested the PSU and swapped it with a known working one. Reset the CMOS by removing the battery. Tested the hard drive, reformatted it and reinstalled OS. I removed all peripherals (cd-rom, floppy, cards, ..etc), running it with bare essentials. All drivers are working properly. Short of a defective motherboard or CPU, can this be caused by something else?

What's odd is that it always starts up when practically restarted immediately after first attempt and it will run fine if used all day.

More specs:
Motherboard: Matsonic MS8308E
OS: Window XP Pro SP2
80 gb Hitachi Deskstar HDD :4-dontkno

[BG-0]

Motherboard's POWER GOOD circuits are busted, that's what the problem is cause by. Not worth fixing, that machine. Take the hard drive up your pocket and get a new, 15 times faster pc for around 300$. Or order a replacement motherboard for 115 $.

[grodrigz]

Turned out to be a loose jumper on the motherboard that connects to the power switch. Guess the first try heats up the connector some and the second attempt heats it a bit more to expands it enough to activate the boot up. After cleaning and tightening the jumper, the old champ fires up every time. Thanks, anyhow, I appreciate your response as I know that the PC's days are numbered.