Ack my power button isn't working!

[RE_Templer]

I'm not sure what is wrong. Last night the computer shut off perfectly normal and this morning I go to turn it on and the power button doesn't work. I tried pressing it like 30 times and still nothing. After a while I started smelling something like burnt paint so I unpluged the power cords. Could someone please tell me what I should do?

[Bovon]

Sometimes the power on switch will go bad.. they are very cheap devices...the good thing there is, the reset switch is the same kind..so, if the power switch stops working, you can use the reset switch to turn it on and off until you can 1) get a new switch or 2) get a new case.

But!!.. that burning smell does not sound good at all. Have you looked inside the case to see if you can determine where the smell is coming from?.. It may be the power supply has gone bad. Most power supply failures are because the two big filter capacitors have shorted out and are causing huge current (and power) drain.

Hope it is the switch...cheaper..if not, maybe its the PSU...which will not be TOO costly to replace.

[mr.jiggyfly]

I don't think its your power button buddy, they're pretty simple devices. Open the case up and look around.

1. Could be your power supply.
2. Could be that your power button connector came loose offa the motherboard.


I know its not that helpful, but try and look around inside and give us more details so we can help ya out.

[RE_Templer]

I opened it up and look around, it looked like the power switch was still attached and the reset button doesn't work either. It smelled like burnt paint, but I couldn't figure out where it was coming from and nothing looked melted or burnt. This happened once before, where the power button wouldn't work, but it never smelled like something was burning before. Last time I just kept pressing the button and it turned on after a bit.

[thronka]

Sounds like a short. Time for a replacement. Like 2 dollars at Radio Shack. Might be grounding the PSU

[John Prophet]

do you have a spare computer? cuz you may have to try swapping in another power supply.

Do you know what capacitors look like? like tiny miniature water towers, lol..but sometimes they swell and bulge on top...usually there are some power capacitors around the cpu etc...look and see if any of them are bulged on top or leaking stuff out of them.

look here for an article on capacitors, with pics etc to show you what to check for.


Usually when you smell something it is from the power supply.

[RE_Templer]

Where is the power supply? Is that the box in the computer that has the power cord pluged into it?

[John Prophet]

yep...has the fan in it in the back of the comp....smell it there at the fan.

But the capacitors are on the motherboard....also there are capacitors INSIDE the power supply which can blow.

[RE_Templer]

Oh, thanks I'll check those out.

[RE_Templer]

I looked on the mother board and it didn't look like any of the capacitors were messed up. Then I looked in the power supply box and it smelled like the smell was coming from there. It was to hard to see anything in it though so I couldn't tell for sure.