I had my desktop computer on earlier today. Turned it off, realized my mistake and went to turn it back on. The computer will not start. Any ideas on a culprit?

I tried jumping the board with a screwdriver. I tried changing the power cable. I tried reseating the power cable and the connection between the power switch and the motherboard.

any lights at all on the pc or board when powered? If not, bad PSU would be my first check.

Was this a somewhat expected?
The PC is a few years old and it has been running odd type of thing or just a BOOM from out of the blue?
What Fatzilla said - are there ANY lights showing signs of life?
No fans running or HDs spinning?

Some things to look at or try:
Does the powerstip have a light?
Did the surge protector trip?
Try another plug on the powerstrip or UPS from where you plugged before - individual plugs can go out
Plug directly to the wall socket, to be sure... maybe even in another room
Power cords can actually go out - rare but it did happen once on a PC in 30+ years of IT work
I know you did already, but check the breaker.

Sorry, habit & that is what started this whole thing.
Good Luck!

Completely unexpected.
No issues with the computer, except one time a few weeks ago the computer didn't immediately turn on that was it.
No signs of life at all.
Surge protector has other stuff that work plugged into it.
Tried another plug and tested the plug with other items.
Tried another power cable too.


I think it is probably the power supply. I've been getting lots of disconnections from the wifi on this desktop. The inability to get much going online today is the reason I was restarting the computer. Apparently (at least according to the internet) that can be a symptom of a failing power supply.

Looks every once in a while when my USB mouse wouldn't start with the computer was also an indicator of a failing power supply.

How did this turn out? Was it the psu?

Just installed a new PSU a couple of hours ago. It was the PSU. It would have been easy if I had used a modular PSU the first time.

ArmyAg2002 said:

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Just installed a new PSU a couple of hours ago. It was the PSU. It would have been easy if I had used a modular PSU the first time.

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Just a note, only do that if you bought the same exact model. Never reuse cables from different psu's as they change pin-outs and you can destroy your pc very easily doing it.

Interesting, like Dell's fake ATX from the Pentium 2 and 3 days