More Awesome Than You!

You all were so ever helpful the last time I had computer issues(random shutdowns - turned out to be the powersupply) that I thought I would ask here again.

The same computer that was randomly shutting down on me before is not not powering up correctly - basically it 1/2 powers up(I can hear the fans running but that's all it does). Is it the power supply again?

To fix it I have to unplug it and wait about 20 seconds and then plug it back in - then it powers up fine. I had the power supply in it replaced a couple years ago(or was it 3 years ago?) but would consider just buying another basic system if this is the problem again. It's the computer my 5 & 8 year old use.

Cass :)

Check your plugs, are the lines to the motherboard properly seated?

I would put this system on death watch. I had an antique (1994 vintage) computer that behaved similarly for a while and it eventually had a fatal hard-drive controller failure. Tightening/cleaning connections might help, but the prognosis does not sound good. You might want to look for a second-hand or liquidated old-stock computer, as new ones will almost certainly come with Vista and that might make migrating your nippers' applications a pain.

NEVER BUY PREMADE COMPUTERS. Period. Always buy and assemble from parts. It saves you money, avoids substandard proprietary crap, and avoids pesky nonexistent driver issues.

I will open it and check connections - the system is a custom build from a friend of my husband's, so yeah built from parts :)

Thank you both very much for the replies - the shop we normally deal with and have bought two systems(they build them) from so far has some reasonable basic systems(no keyboard/monitor/mouse) for in the $500 range that I will have to look into getting - it's almost time to get them separate computers like everyone else in the house.

Cass :)