Rune wrote:
> I'm having problems with my computer again. (Writing from another one.)
> 
> When I press the ON button, nothing happens at all. Does it have power? 
> Yes - the little green LED on the motherboard is lit just fine. I just can't 
> turn the thing on...!
> 
> Any suggestions what to do, or even just finding out in which part of the 
> computer the problem lies?
> (Remember that I am totally clueless when it comes to hardware...)
> 
> It worked just fine last night. Shut down normally and everything. Then 
> simply didn't work this morning... :(
> 


Of course - look at all of the hardware issues - it is likely hardware.

But I did run into one case with the exact same symptoms that was not 
hardware, but a software problem.

When the computer was shut down it would not turn back on.  And there 
was nothing that we could do to get it to come on.  We went as far as 
replacing the motherboard (under warranty), but the problem didn't go away.

Reformatting the PC made the problem go away.  Apparently win2K was 
doing something on shutdown with the power settings that prevented the 
computer from coming back up.  Reformatting with the same win2k made the 
problem go away and the machine worked well from then on.

I believe that it had something to do with the power state that the OS 
put the computer in on power down.  Some states allow power on by 
different activities - such as keyboard events or WOL - while other 
states might restrict this to one or two events.  As the power button is 
'soft' now days, it may not be looked at any differently than a keyboard 
or WOL event - which can be set to not power on the system.

Some options are in the BIOS, but not all of them (if you can get to the 
BIOS :-)


I've been talking way over my head here and put together two things that 
I worked on years ago that were completely unrelated, but when I think 
about them it all starts to make some sense.

So if anyone here knows better, please set me straight.



BUT - it is likely that your trouble is due to hardware and I wouldn't 
spend a lot of time on the software unless you have no other routes and 
want to learn some deep ACPI (or is it APM) lore....


good luck!


Tom

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