Delay in Start when Pushing Power Button

[fish123456]

I have this issue where, when I push the power button on my computer
the fans spin up and I hear this clicking noise. The computer doe
not boot, there is no display, no beeping, nothing. Then, about 3
seconds later, the hard drive spins-up and the computer boots

At first, I tried swapping power supplies and then swapping har
drives, both to no avail. I next thought that maybe it's th
motherboard. The capacitors are slightly bulging and have a hint o
brown discoloring on top, so they might be bad. So I bought a ne
motherboard and swapped out the CPU, memory, hard drive, CPU cooler
and used a new power supply -- nothing. Then I bought a used 1.
Athlon T-Bird and that does the same things with the new motherbor
(and after going back to the old motherboard, too) - nothing

Here's a rundown of the Hardware
----------------------------------------------------
Biostar M7VKD (bad caps, replaced with MSI K7T Pro 2
Athlon T-Bird 1.4, and Athlon T-Bird 1.
3 PCI 133 Dimms (2 Dell brand @ 256 MB, 1 Generic at 128 MB
Nvidia Geforce TI-4200 (this works in my other machine
2 PSU's (400 and 300 Watts
Various IDE Hard Drive

I am at a lost, so any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Dave]

I have this issue where, when I push the power button on my computer,
the fans spin up and I hear this clicking noise. The computer does
not boot, there is no display, no beeping, nothing. Then, about 30
seconds later, the hard drive spins-up and the computer boots.

At first, I tried swapping power supplies and then swapping hard
drives, both to no avail. I next thought that maybe it's the
motherboard. The capacitors are slightly bulging and have a hint of
brown discoloring on top, so they might be bad. So I bought a new
motherboard and swapped out the CPU, memory, hard drive, CPU cooler,
and used a new power supply -- nothing. Then I bought a used 1.2
Athlon T-Bird and that does the same things with the new motherbord
(and after going back to the old motherboard, too) - nothing!

Here's a rundown of the Hardware.
-----------------------------------------------------
Biostar M7VKD (bad caps, replaced with MSI K7T Pro 2)
Athlon T-Bird 1.4, and Athlon T-Bird 1.2
3 PCI 133 Dimms (2 Dell brand @ 256 MB, 1 Generic at 128 MB)
Nvidia Geforce TI-4200 (this works in my other machine)
2 PSU's (400 and 300 Watts)
Various IDE Hard Drives


I am at a lost, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Well my first thought was CMOS settings improperly configured, or a bad
power supply. But then you mentioned changing the mainboard and the power
supply. My next suspect would have been the CPU, but you changed that,
also. This could be caused by a short circuit, under the mainboard. But
again, you changed the mainboard. If there was a problem down there, I
would hope you would have noticed.

There's an outside chance it could be caused by bad RAM. I would try
booting with just ONE stick of RAM. If that doesn't work, or if the symptom
doesn't change,
Leave your ONE stick of RAM in the NEW mainboard. But clear CMOS by
removing battery and moving jumper to clear for about 15 minutes. Then
enter BIOS setup screen and load default settings. -Dave

 

[fish123456]

I have changed the jumper to clear the CMOS and have removed th
battery, too (mainly to check its voltage level) so we are back a
square one. I can only think that the new motherboard is bad or al
three DIMMs are bad or maybe my old 1.4 and new 1.2 CPUS are bot
bad. It's difficult to tell, and not having any friends who hav
working T-bird setups, I can't test it..

Thanks for the response, and any more are greatly appreciated

 

[JAD]

the one constant...the case itself and its switch

 

[Mike T.]

I briefly considered the case. I would be surprised if the switch is bad,
though. We're talking about a momentary contact switch. If it fails, it
either fails open or fails closed. If it fails open, the system never
starts. If it fails closed, the system starts, then SHUTS DOWN a few
seconds later.

Unless the power switch was on some kind of active circuit with a timer, the
OP's symptoms couldn't be related to the switch. I doubt if the power
switch would be active, as that would cost more. -Dave

 

[fish123456]

JADwrote
the one constant...the case itself and its switc
Actually, I have two cases. I should have mentioned that
suppose. When I said I swapped power supplies, I meant I switche
cases (and all of which that entails)

 

[fish123456]

One thing that also may be of interest is if I start the computer wit
the hard drive plugged in to the power and IDE cable, the hard driv
doesn't spin-up. But, if I remove the IDE cable from the hard driv
while the system is powered-up, the hard drive spins up. I though
maybe the cable was bad, but I swapped it out with a known good cabl
and it did the same thing

The system should still get past the POST and tell me that there is n
OS installed, but I thought it was an interesting point to maybe spar
some ideas

Thanks again to all who have helped and will help

 

[Andy]

One thing that also may be of interest is if I start the computer with
the hard drive plugged in to the power and IDE cable, the hard drive
doesn't spin-up. But, if I remove the IDE cable from the hard drive
while the system is powered-up, the hard drive spins up. I thought
maybe the cable was bad, but I swapped it out with a known good cable
and it did the same thing.

The IDE interface has a reset line. The motherboard is holding it
active, preventing the drive from running.

The first thing I would do before replacing anything is check if the
motherboard is being held in a reset state. Two external things can
cause that: PWR_OK at the ATX power connector and ResetSw at the front
panel header. Measure their voltage levels when you turn on the
computer.

 

[fish123456]

Andywrote

The IDE interface has a reset line. The motherboard is holding i
active, preventing the drive from running

The first thing I would do before replacing anything is check i th
motherboard is being held in a reset state. Two external things ca
cause that: PWR_OK at the ATX power connector and ResetSw at th fron
panel header. Measure their voltage levels when you turn on th
computer

Thanks Andy

Where is the PWR_OK at the ATX power connector? Does it matter that
don't have the Reset switch hooked up to the front header? What kin
of voltage am I looking for

 

[Andy]

Thanks Andy:

Where is the PWR_OK at the ATX power connector? Does it matter that I
don't have the Reset switch hooked up to the front header? What kind
of voltage am I looking for?

PWR_OK is pin 8; it's documented in the motherboard manual. When
PWR_OK is low (< 0.8 volts) the motherboard is being reset; when it
goes high (> 2.0 volts), shortly after power is turned on, the
motherboard is allowed to run.

Regarding the reset switch, you might want to observe the voltage when
you press the switch (one pin is ground, the other pin is not).

 

[fish123456]

bump for more help

 

[digisol]

Bulging capacitors ? time for a new board - now

Biostar have never been a top line brand, nore at the other end
consider another brand / any brand with nice new caps

 

[Mike T.]

Bulging capacitors ? time for a new board - now.

Biostar have never been a top line brand, nore at the other end,
consider another brand / any brand with nice new caps.

Interesting comment. I've got tons of experience with many brands of
motherboards, most specifically Biostar and Asus. I would say Biostar is a
step or two ABOVE Asus in terms of quality. That's not really impressive
though. Asus is a low-end brand that is WAY over-hyped. Asus is Kia
quality with a Toyota Reputation. I really don't understand how even most
professionals are so snowed by the Asus brand.

In terms of quality, I find AOpen and DFI (especially AOpen) to be top-line,
with Biostar and Epox being just below them. But there are other good
brands also in the same tier (second) such as Gigabyte, Chaintech, and MSI.

Asus you won't find at the bottom end. The very bottom of the list will
always be occupied by PCCHIPS/ECS. Still, if PCCHIPS/ECS raises their
quality a bit, they might be able to compete with Asus soon. That's pretty
sad. -Dave

 

[John Doe]

Interesting comment. I've got tons of experience with many brands
of motherboards, most specifically Biostar and Asus. I would say
Biostar is a step or two ABOVE Asus in terms of quality. That's
not really impressive though. Asus is a low-end brand that is WAY
over-hyped. Asus is Kia quality with a Toyota Reputation. I
really don't understand how even most professionals are so snowed
by the Asus brand.

If your opinion is based on "tons of experience", why wouldn't
professionals with at least as much experience have a better
opinion?

In terms of quality, I find AOpen and DFI (especially AOpen) to be
top-line, with Biostar and Epox being just below them.

AOpen isn't even on the chart and Epox registers last according to
USENET user popularity.

But there are other good
brands also in the same tier (second) such as Gigabyte, Chaintech,
and MSI... -Dave

I think you're getting warm. Gigabyte and MSI are third and fourth
in popularity among USENET users.

Those statistics according to my USENET server. I'm not suggesting
any direct meaning except for popularity among mostly technically
inclined USENET users. But when something is very popular, people
tend to notice defects, the product is under greater scrutiny.
Besides, you're more likely to get answers when you need help. The
ability to get technical help on USENET is in part how I base my
purchases.

Good luck.

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From: "Mike T." <noway nohow.not>
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Subject: Re: Delay in Start when Pushing Power Button
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 08:05:23 -0400
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[Dave]

If your opinion is based on "tons of experience", why wouldn't
professionals with at least as much experience have a better
opinion?

Because I'm a professional myself. In fact, if Asus was better quality, I
might be unemployed, so I better not bitch too much about Asus quality, or
lack thereof. I'm pretty busy tracing problems to defective Asus boards and
swapping them out for better brands. If all systems had DFI and Biostar
boards to begin with, I'd be looking for work right now. -Dave

 

[John Doe]

Because I'm a professional myself. In fact, if Asus was better
quality, I might be unemployed, so I better not bitch too much
about Asus quality, or lack thereof. I'm pretty busy tracing
problems to defective Asus boards and swapping them out for better
brands. If all systems had DFI and Biostar boards to begin with,
I'd be looking for work right now. -Dave

Or maybe Asus is so popular and DFI/Biostar are so unpopular, it
just looks that way. In other words, perhaps you run across many
malfunctioning Asus mainboards because because they are many times
the number of DFI and Biostar.

I'm not a fan of Asus, I'm trying to figure out the common sense
inconsistency of your argument. Maybe Asus is so popular because
OEMs prefer them? Then again, OEMs do not like support calls. Are
you talking about boards that are out of warranty?

 

[Dave]

Or maybe Asus is so popular and DFI/Biostar are so unpopular, it
just looks that way. In other words, perhaps you run across many
malfunctioning Asus mainboards because because they are many times
the number of DFI and Biostar.

I'm not a fan of Asus, I'm trying to figure out the common sense
inconsistency of your argument. Maybe Asus is so popular because
OEMs prefer them? Then again, OEMs do not like support calls. Are
you talking about boards that are out of warranty?

Most of the failures I see happen well within the first year, typically
within the first few months. Don't know about the warranty issue, as I
don't deal with that. The systems I support need zero downtime (or as close
to possible), so when I have a mainboard failure, I replace it and someone
else gets the headache of what to do with the piece of crap. (I
suspect most of them end up in the garbage)

From what I've observed, Asus boards seem to have a 10% or higher failure
rate within the first year of normal use, with a ~8% failure rate within the
first few months of normal use. (most failures happen pretty fast, some
within days of when the system is finished)

I wouldn't build a system with an Asus board if someone held a gun to my
head. Well, maybe if she was cute, and only needed a Internet appliance and
asked REALLY NICELY. -Dave