Computer won't turn on
 

For the last few weeks, my computer (Dell Dimension 4600 with WinXP, bought in mid-2004) has been odd about turning on. It works fine when it's actually running, but if I unplug the power strip it's connected to and plug it back in, everything else on the strip (monitor, speakers, etc) turns on immediately but the tower does not. Pressing the power button does nothing. For about five minutes it will just sit there, and then the indicator lights will begin blinking on and off. If I press the power button during that time, it finally does turn on.

Unfortunately I've been busy lately and have neglected to look into this problem, mostly because as I said the computer has no problems once it actually turns on. But the problem's getting worse - it takes longer and longer before it's willing to turn on, and tonight I waited fifteen minutes before coming to the other computer to type this post, thinking that one had died for good. (I checked back and it finally had started blinking, but I'm worried that one day it really will not turn on again.) I'll take any help I can get. Thanks.

Computers nowadays are designed NOT to turn on automatically if say, the power is cut off for more than a couple seconds then restored. This is due to the power supply used nowadays. Monitors, speakers, etc, do not work the same way, and thus turn on automatically.

I don't know why it takes 5 minutes or whatever to turn on, but why are you constantly having to plug in the power strip? Can't you just turn the computer off and leave it be?

I had a similar run-in with a dell dimension 4100. The computer will turn on with its blue dell splash screen but does nothing after that. Except blink its power indicator light. Turns out that computer's problem was a combination of things: bad cmos battery, one of the ram modules were also bad, and the bios reset jumper was missing =p.

You could try and see if you're having the same problem(s) but I think it would be faster if you tell us what ABCD diagnostic lights are lit and in what color.

You could just try NOT unplugging the powerstrip. Shut the computer down then turn OFF the powerstrip. That's what the switch is for.

Typically you'll find in systems these days that they take a second or two after you plug them in before they actually pull power. On some boards you can even see an LED light on after a second or two from being plugged in. The fact that your system is unable to power at all after a great amount of time most likely indicates that there is a problem with your motherboard. Kairyu mentioned some fixes above that you could look into. In addition to those, I'd peak inside your case and look for possible cases of leaking capacitators: http://www.flickr.com/photos/houlihan/146258714/

I actually called Dell, and they had me toggle the voltage switch on the back of the tower back and forth once, which cleared up the problem instantly. Thanks for all your suggestions though, guys!

Of all the dumb things... >_>