I built my PC about two years ago, and it's been running smoothly until recently. Now, when I plug in the power at the wall, it won't turn on right away when I press the power button. I often have to wait anywhere from 10 to 60 seconds before it responds. I've also noticed that the LEDs on the motherboard and the Ethernet port don't light up immediately either. If I wait for those LEDs to turn on first, the PC powers up on the first try. The wait time seems to depend on how long the PC has been unplugged; if I had it on earlier, it usually only takes about 5-10 seconds, but it can take over a minute if it's been unplugged for a weekend. Since I usually unplug it when it's off (limited sockets in my old house), this happens almost every time I want to use it. I don't think it's a faulty power button since I've used a screwdriver to power it on with the same result. I'm starting to worry my PSU might be failing. Has anyone experienced something similar?
3 Answers
Have you thought about changing the battery on your motherboard? That could sometimes help with booting issues.
It really sounds like your power supply is starting to fail. It's only two years old so it should still be under warranty. I'd try changing the CMOS battery first like someone suggested, but if you still have issues, you might want to look into getting a replacement PSU.
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too. I’ll try the battery first and see what happens, then move on to the power supply if needed.
Some motherboards and power supplies need a little time to charge up and prepare standby power before they respond to the power button. Newer boards can take longer due to extra checks, especially with RGB and other features. If this only happens after plugging it in and not every time you restart, it's usually not urgent.
If it were just a few seconds and it had always been like this, I wouldn't be concerned. But the minute-long wait after two years is a bit worrying.
I didn't think a dead battery would affect the boot process like this, just the CMOS settings. But if that's a simple fix, I might give it a try!