I'm trying to help my in-laws out with their computer problems, but I'm 4 hours away and will only have one chance to get it working when I visit in a couple weeks. Which makes testing rather difficult. I was there last week, but didn't have much time to mess with it or figure out what might be bad.
Their computer recently stopped turning on when put into sleep mode - not sure exactly when it started, at least a few months ago. It will eventually turn on if you switch off the power supply from the back and wait 15-20 minutes, then turn it back on and hit the power. Most of the time anyway, it was still finnicky. Sometimes it wouldn't turn on at all, and once it even turned on just from disconnecting the power button jumper. Usually after cutting power completely and trying it, the CPU fan would start to spin for half a second and then nothing, but only the first time after reconnecting the power.
When you get lucky and it does turn on, it stays on indefinitely (they're leaving it on for the next two weeks until I come back as a precaution), so it doesn't seem to be the PSU itself. Unless there's a short somewhere, but I didn't think to test unplugging each device from the PSU individually.
I'm just not sure if it's the motherboard, the power supply, or even the case and the front connections. I tried hooking up the reset button to the power pins to no avail, and also touching the two power pins together with a screwdriver (nothing). Hopefully it's not the motherboard, because it's a Socket AM2+ CPU and those aren't too common these days. I'm just nervous since I'll need to order any parts before I head over to their house, and only get one shot at it.
This is the
motherboard in question - about 4 years old. Thanks in advance if anyone has any ideas or has run into this before, my google-fu hasn't come up with a clear answer yet. I can provide any additional info if it helps.
Thanks.
