Hi Gals and Guys, I have a problem that I hope you can help with. I have a Dell 2350 with a pentium 4,windows xp home edition. anyway about a month ago we had a power outage that lasted all day.When the power went out the computer was off,when it came baack on the computer would not come on.since I have another computer,I didn't rush to fix it.every time I passed it I pushed the power button to no avail,then oe day it came to life.everything worked fine.after I finished I turned it off,now sometimes it comes on and works great.The problem is sometimes it when I push the button it comes on and othertimes nothing happens.can some one give me some advice? I want to fix it myself with help from the forum. THANKS TO EVERYONE Dennis

Motherboard and/or Power Supply

In those kind of situations, it could be a number of things affected by the power outage. I'd say that the motherboard is no longer able to sustain power. I had the same problem with a faulty motherboard - occasionally it would startup and stay on, while other times it would simply refuse to do so.

The power supply is a potential culprit, but I have an inkling the motherboard is the way to go. Since it's an old PC, I'd understand if you didn't want to pay for a service, but unfortunately you're possibly looking at changing your motherboard, which might be a little troublesome.

On the flipside, you could do a quick check of all the wiring, open the side panel and make sure the front panel buttons are connected properly to the motherboard. The power pins may only just be touching. Seems unlikely for this to occur during a power outage, but you never know.

Hope this helps.

Power hassles

When power goes out voltage get lower and to supply the required watts, current flows faster. This creates heat, lots of it. Damage is usually done by this heat. It only takes split second, however electronic parts dislike to get hot. Most likely problem is your power supply. remove a known working one from your other computer and hook it just to your motherboard. Don't worry to fit it in, or connecting all your peripherals. start and see. If you have a lift-off, buy new PSU. If not chuck your board. And get UPS (Uninteruptible Power Supply), get cheaper then replacing your vital parts in computer.

have you opend the case

hmm a few ideas have you opend the case to play around if so if its not closed correctly the button may no always conect with the actual switch. simple check the power point after a power outage or surge socket or wiring maybe damaged in house try another power point. sounds like nothing more than a faulty switch on the actual tower.