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Old January 11th 20, 07:55 PM posted to microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion,microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_3_]
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Posts: 25
Default motorboating power

About a month ago, I turned on my Windows 98/XP desktop machine, for the
first time in ages (possibly a couple of years).

The mouse lit up, as did the power and other (disc access?) LED, and
fans started - then they went out again. Then they came on again - then
they went off again. They do this on about a two second cycle. Nothing
is coming down the monitor lead - I turned the monitor off and on again,
to fool it into not being in standby, and nothing appeared on screen.

Cycling the mains power switch on the back (which had been on all the
time) didn't seem to change things - well, on switching back on, it
stayed in standby, until the power button was pressed, when the
motorboating started again.

I've discovered that the 5VSB seems OK - at least, some Christmas lights
I plugged into it (front panel USB socket) stayed on; I've just
discovered that having those plugged in when switching on at the back
(they come on) prevents _anything_ happening when I press the power
button. (No, I didn't have them plugged in when I first encountered this
behaviour.)

I'm guessing a power supply fault, but thought I'd ask here before
changing it (I have spare supplies), in case anyone'd encountered such
symptoms before and knows it isn't that.

I can't remember what the motherboard is, but it was moderately fancy -
I remember it had some features only accessible by loading from the
accompanying CD into XP (which I never played with - it was built as a
'98SElite machine, with XP only added much later). Not a bees' knees
gaming one, but not a budget make either.

Machine will be no great loss - I'm sure I can read what is on the (40
or 80G I think) HDs that are in it; was just surprised when it didn't
come up.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Air conditioned environment - Do not open Windows.