Hi,

The other morning when I switched on my rather old Dell Optiplex 755 PC I noticed that the power light came on but then went off almost immediately. I'm not totally sure it didn't do this previously but in any case this time the computer failed to boot up.

I manually restarted the computer by pressing and holding the power button and eventually the issue seemed to correct itself.

Now, the light still comes on and then turns off (you can also hear the fan stop running) but a few seconds later it comes back on and seems to boot up OK.

That being said today, whilst the power light did come back on, there was no display at all so again I forced it to turn off by pressing and holding the power button and it's now apparently working OK.

I'm concerned this is the start of a hardware issue as there are no obvious software problems reported by either Avast or CC Cleaner.

Apart from backing up my most important files is there anything I can or should do to see if this is a fault developing and correct it.

I seem to recall some years ago using some software at work which effectively stress tested the hardware but at the time I had the support of an IT department so wasn't that involved.

Any advice would be much appreciated,

John.

Could just be a flat cmos battery. The lack of graphics output makes me wonder....

Aye, could be a flat CMOS, but if the PC is that old, I'd be tempted to back up your files to a hard drive and then go for something a bit newer anyway.

Only downside to that is that if you have anything that runs an oldish program it may not work with the new Windows OS.

Check power supply for Capacitor failure. (bulging)

Quite common a few years back in PSU's monitors etc.

If it were a CMOS battery wouldn't I get some sort of error warning on start up?

It's very likely you have bad capacitors on the motherboard, seen plenty of Dells of this era with bulging/leaking caps. PSU may have bad caps as well.

My Pc does this, I traced it to a bad PSU, but worked out if I leave it disconnected from the wall for a few hours it starts fine. Just means when I finish using it I have to switch the wall plug off or disconnect the kettle lead.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I'll try disconnecting it at the socket in the evening and also see if I can source a replacement PSU.

I've found a local used computer dealer who has virtually the identical PC but with less RAM than mine for under £60 but it doesn't have an operating system installed and I'm assuming I couldn't simply swap over my hard drive as I seem to recall Windows is somehow tied to the specific PC it was initially installed on.

If swapping the PSU would correct the problem it seems like a low cost and relatively simple solution.

John.

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Originally posted by John P
Thanks for the suggestions.

I'll try disconnecting it at the socket in the evening and also see if I can source a replacement PSU.

I've found a local used computer dealer who has virtually the identical PC but with less RAM than mine for under £60 but it doesn't have an operating system installed and I'm assuming I couldn't simply swap over my hard drive as I seem to recall Windows is somehow tied to the specific PC it was initially installed on.

If swapping the PSU would correct the problem it seems like a low cost and relatively simple solution.

John.

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