PC wont boot first time

[lumley66]

I have a system (XP Pro) which needs four or five goes on the poer button to start up. Why is this? Anyone?

[Fillie]

Check the connection wire between the power button and the motherboard.

[lumley66]

Thanks Fillie,

Already checked that. The power does actually come on but the screen goes no further than a blank, grey with a small line cursor in the top left corner. This wont shift without rebooting the PC.

[sr71000]

what do u mean a small line cursor? I'd say reseat your memory and video card, then give memtest86 from www.memtest86.com a whirl and see how things go .

[andy1984]

Thanks Fillie,

Already checked that. The power does actually come on but the screen goes no further than a blank, grey with a small line cursor in the top left corner. This wont shift without rebooting the PC.

Do you mean you cant get into bios at all? or do you mean you have to turn it one then hit the reset key to make it work?

[lumley66]

Thanks sr71000. I will try that and let you know.

Appreciated.

[lumley66]

Thanks andy1984. Yes, that is excatly right. I sometimes have to use the reset button or indeed swith off altogether and restart.

[ozwald]

...could your power supply be going bad?

[andy1984]

Thanks andy1984. Yes, that is excatly right. I sometimes have to use the reset button or indeed swith off altogether and restart.

Thats very strange... and you say you've checked the connector for the power switch. Will be a very small wire coming from the front of your computer going into the mobo, there'll be other small wires possibly connected to it for the power led, reset switch, reset led and hdd leds.

It does sound like a soft power problem. Does your computer ever turn itself off randomly when you actaully get it up and running?

[lumley66]

Oswald and Andy1984 thank you. The only thing I haven't tried so far is a change of power supply so I think that will have to be my next step.

Thanks everybody for your advice. I will ressurect the problem again if the PSU fails to cure it.