Peculiar dell inspiron 531s power on problem

[papuchazo]

If i shutdown the computer and then go to press the power button, it wont turn on right away, no fans/lights anything. But a few minutes later it will turn on, on its own. Has anyone seen this before?

I also tested the power supply with a tester that has an "on" button and it fires up the fans instantly as soon as I press it. If I shut it down and wait a couple of minutes and do press the button it will fireup right when I press the on button. There seems to be some kind of "timer" after shutdown when the computer will turn on.

 

[Adept PC Repair]

This is a strange one, possibly a bad capacitor? Does it do the same thing with the battery removed?

 

[papuchazo]

This is a strange one, possibly a bad capacitor? Does it do the same thing with the battery removed?

It's a desktop. Strange indeed. Have been searching google for quite a while now with no luck.

 

[PCX]

Have you tried swapping the PSU. If the PSU is intermittent, sometimes a PSU tester will not pick it up. This is why I use a PSU tester and swap out the PSU for good measure.

 

[papuchazo]

Have you tried swapping the PSU. If the PSU is intermittent, sometimes a PSU tester will not pick it up. This is why I use a PSU tester and swap out the PSU for good measure.

Didn't think of doing that after the tester worked fine. I'll give this a go. The tester does fire up the psu EVERY TIME I press the button though, weird.

 

[johnrobert]

Try another PSU
this fixed my dell

 

[AlaDes]

I know this is an old post, but I just recently had a problem similar to this. My problem was the unit would come on all by itself sometimes, go through the shutdown process all on its own, or sometimes would shut down abruptly, causing the unit to boot into repair mode.

My problem ended up being a faulting power button switch!

 

[brandonkick]

For problems like this one, you can short out the green wire in the ATX harness to any black (ground) wire. This will force the PSU to start when power is connected to the AC in.

If it fires every time, then you have a problem in the wiring to the button (or with the button)